00100	INTRODUCTION
00200	
00300	
00400		This is a request for a  grant  of  $622,709  to  enable  the
00500	Stanford  University  Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to carry out
00600	research aimed at the development of  home  computer  terminals.  The
00700	work is to run for three years starting 1 July 1973.
00800	
00900		Even before the idea of computer time-sharing was worked out,
01000	much  less  actually  developed,  the  idea  of  the home information
01100	terminal appeared.  Some of the ideas go back to Vannevar Bush's  "As
01200	We  May  Think"  and  some  of  them appeared even earlier in science
01300	fiction.  The general idea is to give everyone  immediate  access  to
01400	both  permanent  and temporary information, to computing services for
01500	transforming this information, and to  computer  aid  in  interacting
01600	with  other people and institutions. Examples cited include immediate
01700	access to the whole of the world's literature, information about what
01800	is  for  sale  and  what  entertainment  is available, computer aided
01900	instruction and computer aids  to  the  design  and  construction  of
02000	individualized  furniture  and  clothes, direct access to airline and
02100	other reservation systems, and buying  programs  that  will  help  in
02200	getting  the best buy.  A rather full discussion of the benefits of a
02300	developed  home  terminal  system  is  contained  in  a  paper  "Home
02400	Terminals"  by  John  McCarthy  reproduced  as  Appendix  A  to  this
02500	proposal.
02600	
02700		The ideas discussed in that paper have one common theme - the
02800	use  of  technology, in this case computer technology, to enhance the
02900	capabilities of the individual and strengthen  him  in  his  dealings
03000	with the institutions of our society.  We see this as coming about in
03100	the following ways all of which  are  discussed  more  fully  in  the
03200	paper:
03300	
03400		1.  Anyone  can create a file and make it publicly available,
03500	and  this  constitutes  publication.   This   will   not   make   all
03600	publications  equal, but it will certainly strengthen individuals and
03700	small groups relative to large institutions.
03800	
03900		2. The computer is a device that considers  individual  cases
04000	cheaply.  To  the extent that programs and program controlled devices
04100	are available, it permits attention to an individual's needs at costs
04200	now  attainable only by mass production.  This potentially applies to
04300	education, production, and even law.
04400	
04500		Computer technology is now essentially ready to  realize  the
04600	home  terminal,  but  there are a number of obstacles to be overcome,
04700	and the proposed research is  intended  to  identify  them  and  help
04800	overcome them. Here are those we see now:
04900	
05000		1.   The  first  obstacle  is  the  cost  of  the  terminals,
05100	communications, time-shared computers, and bulk  information  storage
05200	devices.   In  our  opinion,  home  terminals will have a substantial
05300	market when the cost of a terminal and nominal  services  comes  into
05400	the  range  of $50 to $100 per month.  Electronics costs are reducing
05500	at a rate that will make this feasible in a few years, and we do  not
05600	propose  to work on this problem directly in this research.  In fact,
05700	we expect to use quite flexible terminals which will therefore not be
05800	the cheapest available today.
05900	
06000		2.  The  full  development  of  the above facilities requires
06100	hundreds of thousands of man years of programming  and  institutional
06200	changes  in  our  society.  What can be done easily may not be useful
06300	enough to justify purchase of home terminals by enough people to make
06400	a viable system.  We have already put much thought into determining a
06500	dozen or so applications that are feasible now and will add up  to  a
06600	worthwhile  package.  We will name some in this proposal, and we hope
06700	to think of more.
06800	
06900		3.  Home  terminal  applications  will  mostly  be  elaborate
07000	programs  that  interact  with  the  user, file structures, and other
07100	programs.  All programs with these  characteristics  that  have  been
07200	built  so  far have been tightly bound to the languages, time-sharing
07300	systems, and hardware of the institutions where they were  developed,
07400	and  transplanting  them  has been extremely difficult.  On the other
07500	hand, it is very important that home  terminal  application  programs
07600	become  universally  available  as  soon  as  they are developed.  We
07700	believe that the key to  making  this  possible  technically  is  the
07800	identification of the basic semantic elements of interactive programs
07900	separated from their syntactic expression  in  programming  languages
08000	and  the  details  of  their  realization on particular hardware.  We
08100	propose to  study  these  issues  from  the  standpoint  of  computer
08200	science.
08300	
08400		Another  computer  science  issue  that  arises is making the
08500	programs easily usable by infrequent users.   Many  present  programs
08600	exhibit  what  might  be called the instrument flying difficulty.  If
08700	you haven't used it for six hours in the last six months, you are  no
08800	longer qualified. We believe that it is possible to develop a uniform
08900	system for all kinds of programs that is reasonably self-documenting.
09000	
09100	
09200		4.  Home  terminal services are not a natural monopoly and it
09300	is important to allow access to programs that are not the property of
09400	the  time-sharing  service  bureaus  that provide the computation and
09500	also to allow a user to connect his  terminal  to  whatever  computer
09600	seems  best  to  him  at the time.  (We emphasize this point, because
09700	some advocates of home information services via CATV seem to  propose
09800	systems  in which the information services would be monopolies of the
09900	local CATV companies.) We propose to put a small effort into  working
10000	out  the  most  desirable  way of institutionalizing the provision of
10100	home terminal service.
10200	
10300		In  support  of  these  goals,  we  propose   the   following
10400	activities  which  will  be  described  in  more detail in subsequent
10500	sections of the proposal:
10600	
10700		1. We will acquire a number of remote display  terminals  and
10800	attach  them  to the PDP-10 based time-sharing system of the Stanford
10900	Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.  Some  will  be  located  in  the
11000	homes  of  suitable users and others will be located in public places
11100	on the Stanford campus.  (Public terminals  will  be  more  effective
11200	than home terminals for some experiments).
11300	
11400		2. We will develop  a  package  of  applications,  make  them
11500	available, measure their use, and ask what the users think of them.
11600	
11700		3.  We  will  study the computer science problems involved in
11800	developing these highly  interactive  programs  and  in  making  them
11900	transportable.
12000	
12100		4.  We  will study the problem of making application programs
12200	that are usable in  a  uniform  and  easily  learnable  way  and  are
12300	unobtrusively self-documenting.
12400	
12500	
12600		In all this, our emphasis will be on the application programs
12700	rather  than  on the terminal, communication, or computer hardware or
12800	the time-sharing operating system itself.  In all these areas we will
12900	rely   on   existing   facilities  first,  off-the-shelf  purchasable
13000	facilities  second,  and  home  grown  ad  hoc  solutions  only  when
13100	necessary.
13200	
13300		It  is  necessary  to  recognize  that  this is a new area of
13400	computer science and engineering  and  that  it  will  take  time  to
13500	develop real professionals.  We hope that graduate students will find
13600	this a fruitful area for their initial scientific work.