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The Dream Machine

By: M. Mitchell Waldrop
Narrated by: Jamie Renell
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Publisher's Summary

Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. He did not design the first personal computers or write the software that ran on them, nor was he involved in the legendary early companies that brought them to the forefront of our everyday experience. He was instead a relentless visionary who saw the potential of the way individuals could interact with computers and software. 

At a time when computers were a short step removed from mechanical data processors, Licklider was writing treatises on "human-computer symbiosis", "computers as communication devices", and a now not-so-unfamiliar "Intergalactic Network". His ideas became so influential, his passion so contagious, that Waldrop called him "computing's Johnny Appleseed". 

In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be.

Included in this edition are also the original texts of Licklider's three most influential writings: "Man-computer symbiosis" (1960), which outlines the vision that inspired the personal computer revolution of the 1970s; his "Intergalactic Network" memo (1963), which outlines the vision that inspired the Internet; and "The computer as a communication device" (1968, coauthored with Robert Taylor), which amplifies his vision for what the network could become.

©2018 M. Mitchell Waldrop (P)2018 Stripe Press

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How a Psychologist shaped our world

This is the best book on the history of computers I have ever read. For the first time I can see not the events, but the people who first envisioned, then were given the power to decide, how technology would evolve in the second half of the 20th century.

Most storytellers would say “The Pentagon”, the institution. This book says “Lick”, the man. Institutions don’t make decisions. Networks of humans, part by virtue of opportunity and part by personal gift and persistence, do. Uncovering their motivations and actions is not an easy task. Even more challenging is to explain them within a technological landscape, and make it colourful and clear. This book succeeds at both, all the while also honouring the interactions and contributions of people who in turn influenced or were influenced by Licklider, and who moved the field forward independently, once he gave it inspiration and means.

A tour de force. Do read it. It will colour your understanding of our society forever.

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