The talk was anecdotal and humorous at times, but with an underlying seriousness and enthusiasm throughout. Mr. Nelson described the constant improvements in size, cost, and speed of the machines. He explained some of the mechanics of the machines, which operate on patterns of sparks that conceivably can initiate a set of functions.
Programs can include words, pictures, printing, or strings of words.
A cathode-ray display can be hooked to the computer and can present a visual picture of the programmed material. The potential use of the computer in the creative process was the most important aspect of Mr. Nelson's lecture, particularly emphasizing the possibilities for the humanities. Using a personal anecdote, he reminded the audience of the problems of organizing material into a coherent piece of writing. In this system passages of material would be translated into machine language and filed in the machine in any sequence. With the proper instructions the machine would print out any sequence the writer wished to try, freeing him from the necessity of keeping the ideas in his head.