The Macroscope: An Interactive Videodisc System for Environmental and Forestry Education

@techreport{hamilton2025macroscope, author = {Hamilton, Michael P., Ph.D.}, title = {The Macroscope: An Interactive Videodisc System for Environmental and Forestry Education}, institution = {Canemah Nature Laboratory}, year = {2025}, number = {CNL-TN-2025-004}, month = {december}, url = {https://canemah.org/archive/document.php?id=CNL-TN-2025-004}, abstract = {This technical note republishes the 1986 paper "The Macroscope: An Interactive Videodisc System for Environmental and Forestry Education" by Hamilton and Lassoie, originally presented at the Forestry Microcomputer Software Symposium in Morgantown, West Virginia. The original paper described an interactive multimedia system combining videodisc imagery of forest ecosystems at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve with microcomputer-based text and graphics databases. The system introduced three epistemological entry points—Explorer, Naturalist, and Ecologist—representing spatial, taxonomic, and process-oriented approaches to ecological education. This republication provides a faithful transcription of the complete original paper, followed by reflections examining how its central ideas evolved over four decades into the current Macroscope paradigm, including the transformation from retrospective image archives to prospective sensor networks, and the expansion of the original three-domain framework into the four domains (EARTH, LIFE, HOME, SELF) that structure the Canemah Nature Laboratory's current research. The republication serves as both historical documentation and a case study in the persistence of conceptual frameworks across radical technological transformation.} }