Ted Nelson delivered a passionate, Shakespearean eulogy for his friend and computing pioneer Douglas Engelbart at the Computer History Museum on December 9, 2013, shortly after Engelbart’s death at age 88. Nelson’s speech, widely circulated in The New York Times and on Slashdot, served as both a tribute to Engelbart and a sharp critique of the modern tech industry for abandoning Engelbart’s original vision of computer-augmented intelligence in favor of superficial interfaces like the mouse and fonts.

Key elements of Nelson’s eulogy included:

• Critique of Marginalization: Nelson lamented that Engelbart was "dumped by ARPA," "dumped by SRI," and "snubbed by Xerox PARC," arguing that his vision for collaborative knowledge work was stifled by organizational politics and a shift toward artificial intelligence.

• Loss of Potential: He compared Engelbart to Icarus and Julius Caesar, suggesting that the world lost a "saint" whose ideas for parallel problem-solving and deep collaboration were forgotten despite their profound importance.

• Contrast with Modern Tech: Nelson expressed disappointment that the computing world celebrated "glitz" and simple tools while ignoring Engelbart’s complex, structural approach to augmenting human potential, famously quoting Walt Kelly: "The gentle journey jolts to stop. The drifting dream is done."

Nelson, who coined the term hypertext and developed the Xanadu project, viewed Engelbart as a kindred spirit whose "soaring view of human potential" was never fully realized due to the computing establishment's short-sightedness. The speech was noted for its intense emotional delivery, with some audience members misinterpreting Nelson’s pauses for emotion as comedic timing, though Nelson was reportedly overcome with grief.