Rating

★★★★☆

Category

non-fiction

Read

2018-11-26

Pages

528

Really fascinating history of … well everything computer+internet related, really. Uses biography of Licklider to string it all together. Feels like watching an ensemble superhero film - all your favourites keep showing up. Turing, McCarthy, Englebart, Cerf, etc etc etc. Well written. Only criticism is that it was a bit of a slog length wise - not sure I’d cut any part though.

I liked the coverage of PARC, concluding: And that was the essential tragedy, he says: whereas headquarters understood marketing but not computers, the wizards out on Coyote Hill Road understood computers but not marketing.”

Pretty inspiring overall: “What have you done today that was altruistic, creative, or educational?” “Don’t just invent the future; go live in it.”