The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution that Made Computing PersonalIn 1962, decades before "personal computers" and "Internet" became household words, the revolution that gave rise to both of them was set in motion from a small, nondescript office in the depths of the Pentagon. In an age when the word "computer" still meant a big, ominous mainframe mysteriously processing punch cards, the occupant of that office-an MIT psychologist named J.C.R. Licklider-had somehow seen a future in which computers would become an exciting new medium of expression, a joyful inspiration to creativity, and a gateway to a vast on-line world of information. And now he was determined to use the Pentagon's money to make it all happen. Written with the novelistic flair that made his Complexity "the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year" (Washington Post), M. Mitchell Waldrop's The Dream Machine is the first full-scale portrait of J.C.R. Licklider and how his dream of a "human-computer symbiosis" changed the course of science and culture. But more than that, it is an epic saga of technological advance that spans the history of modern computers from the Second World War to the explosion of creativity at Xerox PARC in the 1970s to the personal computer boom of the 1980s and the Internet boom of the 1990s. Capturing the drama, passion, and excitement of the brilliant men and women who were caught up in one of the great intellectual and technological adventures in human history, The Dream Machine has the hallmarks of a classic. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 15
Page 153
... Fredkin came to rest in a group headed by Tom Marill , with whom he actually got along . They even kept in touch after Marill departed for BBN . " Sometime after Tom left , I decided that I'd start a company , " says Fredkin . " I ...
... Fredkin came to rest in a group headed by Tom Marill , with whom he actually got along . They even kept in touch after Marill departed for BBN . " Sometime after Tom left , I decided that I'd start a company , " says Fredkin . " I ...
Page 179
... Fredkin . " Ben Gurley pointed out that if you dropped something on it , it would explode . " McCarthy , for his ... Fredkin's style . As soon as he heard what the company's new consultants were up to , Fredkin was eager to try it ...
... Fredkin . " Ben Gurley pointed out that if you dropped something on it , it would explode . " McCarthy , for his ... Fredkin's style . As soon as he heard what the company's new consultants were up to , Fredkin was eager to try it ...
Page 208
... Fredkin remembers being badly shaken by that comment ; he'd never heard a bureaucratic threat being made quite so nakedly - or so plausibly . But Lick wasn't fazed at all , says Fredkin . It later turned out that Bennington did indeed ...
... Fredkin remembers being badly shaken by that comment ; he'd never heard a bureaucratic threat being made quite so nakedly - or so plausibly . But Lick wasn't fazed at all , says Fredkin . It later turned out that Bennington did indeed ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actually already Alto ARPA ARPA's Arpanet Bell Labs Beranek Bob Kahn Bob Taylor brain build called Center Cerf Chuck Thacker colleagues Corbató course create CTSS director electronic Engelbart engineers ENIAC fact Fano Fredkin George Pake going Goldman graphics hardware History of Computing human idea interactive computing Internet J. C. R. Licklider Kahn kind knew laboratory Lampson later Lick Lick's Lincoln Lab look Lukasik machine mathematics McCarthy memory Miller moreover Multics Neumann never Newell Nonetheless Norbert Wiener on-line operating packets Pake PARC Pentagon personal computer problem Project MAC puter remembers Roberts says seemed Shannon started symbiosis talk Tech Square Thacker thing thought time-sharing tion trying Turing turn University users Vint Cerf vision wanted Wiener wrote Xerox