Extreme TL;DR: “Project Xanadu,” envisioned by Vannevar Bush in 1945 as the “memex,” aimed to revolutionize knowledge sharing but remained unrealized due to lack of development. Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson later pursued hypertext systems but faced challenges. Engelbart created groundbreaking tools (e.g., mouse, hypermedia) showcased in “The Mother of All Demos,” while Nelson’s Xanadu project, aiming for interconnected documents and copyright solutions, struggled with funding and technical feasibility, ultimately fading into obscurity.
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-review-project-xanadu-the-internet