Lawrence Tesler Passes Away at 74

This past Sunday, a technological innovator by the name of Lawrence Tesler passed away at the age of 74. This article by the New York Times recounts some of his work and influence on modern technology, like the apple mouse and the fact that it only has one button. What he’s probably most known for, however, are his innovations in how we directly interact with computers. He introduced many features standard to any computer, like the ability to copy and paste and even simply opening files by clicking them. His main focus was designing things to be simple and natural for the user.

Reading this article made me wonder: how would we interact with computers today if not for advances like his? These features that we take for granted every day were at one point not even thought of.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/technology/lawrence-tesler-dead.html

3 thoughts on “Lawrence Tesler Passes Away at 74

  1. The people around me and I definitely take the technological advances that have been made for granted. The amount of research that is put into it the innovations made is not given enough credit. I always just assumed that copy and paste was just a part of a computer’s software, but your really put into perspective that people have to develop these things. Copying and pasting is a mindless task everyone with a computer does almost everyday. For example, without Lawrence Tesler, copying and pasting out sources for the blog posts wouldn’t be possible and makes me wonder what everyone would do without this feature. In general, technology today is so complex and advanced that the average human doesn’t even realize. There are also jobs being taken over by artificial intelligence because of all the technological advancements that have been made in the past several decades. Everyone with technology takes advantage of it in many ways, individuals need to be made more aware of the amazing individuals that make their technological devices operate and accessible.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/larry-tesler-death-apple-cut-copy-paste-inventor-apple-computer-a9345461.html

  2. I agree that we take the technology we use every day for granted. Before I read your paragraph, I had no idea who Lawrence Tesler was or what he was famous for. I feel as if that is just yet another thing I have taken for granted and not appreciated enough. The technology we use today has become so advanced yet the majority of the population has no idea how it actually works. It is just the norm now to have an iPhone or laptop that is able to FaceTIme someone across the entire world in a matter of seconds. We take the technology given to us for granted and have not realized the impact it has had on our lives. The difference between twenty years ago and now is immeasurable yet most do not even realize it.

    source: https://www.haseltinelake.com/media-centre/blog/2017/april/technology-we-take-for-granted

  3. When you say, “these features that we take for granted every day were at one point not even thought of,” it just makes me realize how many things will come in the future that we have never thought of! Things like smartphones that we use every single day for basically everything were not even around a generation ago. That is crazy. Jobs will change because things like AI will take over. Education will change because people will be trained on how to use technology. For example, in high school, my class was the first year to use iPads during class. Now it is so common for every person to have some sort of device to use. Classes rely on technology to be used. A decade or two ago, this was not necessarily the case. Basic technology that we take for granted every day will only increase. And the idea of this is crazy.

    https://www.pcmag.com/news/what-tech-will-look-like-in-2039

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