The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While it's true that no one person's vision encompassed all of what we now consider personal computing, we can't help but focus on individual effort as we try to understand how we got here. Science writer M. Mitchell Waldrop carefully balances this hero culture with a historian's mania for completeness in The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal.

"Lick," as his students and colleagues called him, was deeply involved in guiding the evolution of personal and networked computing from the 1950s through the 1980s, after leaving a career in cognitive psychology. Waldrop captures his spirit vividly--contrary to our stereotypical view of computer scientists, Licklider was profoundly interested in his fellow humans, and this interest helped him lead the design of technology adapted to human needs.

Waldrop interviewed dozens of contemporaries and examined reams of notes and primary sources to compose this massive biography of influence that stretches from MIT to the Pentagon to Xerox PARC and far beyond. If it sometimes seems that Licklider was a little too well beloved, especially in comparison to some of the more colorful figures in computing's recent history, it is worth remembering that his patience and humility were the very qualities that helped deliver the home-computing revolution we take for granted today. If we had to choose just one 20th-century computer pioneer that we couldn't do without, it would have to be the man behind the Dream Machine. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

Licklider was a brilliant scientist whose essential contributions to cognitive psychology and cybernetics included critical early developments in the field of man-machine interaction. However, his original work is often overshadowed by his accomplishments as a teacher, administrator and project leader and this ably written and well-researched biography isn't likely to propel him into the limelight. Waldrop (Man-Made Minds) devotes about 20% of the book to Licklider himself; the rest covers his teachers, colleagues and students at MIT and the Pentagon including computing pioneers Douglas Engelbart, Wes Clark and Larry Roberts and Licklider's indirect influence on the development of personal computers and the Internet (via "the world's first large-scale experiment in personal computing" at MIT). To his credit, Waldrop avoids common stereotypes of computer nerds or saints, delivering a vivid account of Licklider and his contemporaries. But he was not able to interview Licklider (who died in 1990), nor does he include material from personal papers or memoirs. Instead, Waldrop bases most of the book on secondary accounts, including biographies and histories of technology. The result is an informative and engaging history of computers from the 1930s to the 1970s, with an emphasis on Licklider and his period of greatest influence, 1957 to 1968. (Aug. 27)Forecast: A six-city author tour will raise some interest, but there isn't much demand for another history of computing and the Internet, especially when Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon's Where Wizards Stay Up Late and Martin Campbell-Kelly's Computer cover the same material.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (August 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670899763
• ISBN-13: 978-0670899760
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #990,956 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read & reference as origins of modern computing & net, November 16, 2001

By	cgb (SF & Oz) - See all my reviews

I was a ms reviewer of this complete, but very readable book based on JCR Licklider's vision of interactive and networked computing. It covers almost 50 years of computing.

Why most of us need a copy:
It presents an accurate and quite complete history of the research and ideas that include timesharing, personal computing, graphics, Internet, etc.

I use it to check my memory on various facts.

The book is well written = easy and pleasant reading.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turning a Vision of Expanded Human Potential into Reality!, September 8, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

The Dream Machine deserves many more than five stars.

Mr. Waldrop provides a valuable synthesis of several important perspectives:

(1) The development of personal, interconnected computing from its fundamental roots in academic and corporate scientific thinking, conceptualization, and experimentation;

(2) How the vision of one man, Professor J. C. R. Licklider, played an important role in nurturing the development of this form of computing;

(3) How creating a computing community that frequently shared ideas in-person and on-line accelerated the development of the technology and the society it served; and

(4) How the contributions of the major and minors players fit together to bring us where we are today.

Whenever I read a book about the history or current state of computing in the future, The Dream Machine will be valuable for helping me put the observations into context. This is true despite the fact that I have been doing consulting in this industry for almost 30 years, and had early access to many of its important innovations.

In fact, if you only read one book about computers in the next two years, The Dream Machine should be that book.

As valuable as I found that framing of the development, I was even more impressed with seeing how to foster fundamental human development through this example. Professor Licklider was trained initially in psychology. From that unusual perspective on computers, he quickly perceived what humans can do better than computers (make judgments, fine distinctions, and decide what order to do things in) and what computers can do better than humans (make difficult calculations, remember lots of things at the same time, and rearrange mountains of information into new forms of order). He also foresaw that the full exploitation of these combinations would have to come from playing with a responsive computer that did your bidding during real time. Although he knew that the costs of such would be prohibitive for many years, he helped encourage first time sharing and later software protocols that would bring the experience to as many people as soon as possible. Although he was not alone in his perception of all this, he was unique in his dedication and influence in bringing it all together through a long career as an academic and business researcher, visionary leader, professor, mentor, and twice head of ARPA computing activities in the Pentagon. His life should be an object lesson to all about how much difference one can make through bringing the right people and resources together to work on the right questions.

If you are like me, you will find reading about Professor Licklider to be one of the most moving experiences you will ever have from reading a combination of history and biography.

Some will complain because the book relies primarily on secondary sources. I found that foundation in books and stories I know well to be its strength. There is an enormous amount written about the history of computers and key people. How it all fits together is what I needed, not a new theory of what happened.

Having been in the middle of or next to much of what is described here, I also came away with many new perspectives on where computing should go from here. In essence, this book succeeded in transferring Professor Licklider's vision and perspectives to me. Having seen how profound his vision has been, I can only hope that this transfer will take place for many people and coming generations through this outstanding book.

I should note that for those who are not technically oriented this book is easy to read and understand, even though it is about a technical subject. I was also impressed that the personalities of the various pioneers in computer research came through loud and clear. Many of these people are known to me primarily through their accomplishments. I was glad to find out about them as people.

After you finish this wonderful book, I encourage you to think about where you have a unique vision for how to improve the world that no one else understands or is as committed to as you are. How can you advance that understanding to the benefit of all?

Take a long, hard look at how we can come closer to our potential as humans!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best History of Computer Science, January 11, 2002

By	Arbys (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Everyone has heard about the amazing ideas and systems from Xerox PARC, but few realize that this lab was was the culmination of JCR Licklider's vision of personal, interactive computing, not its birthplace. Licklider provided the vision and impetus to form the ARPA-funded core of computer science research, which lead to Douglas Englebart's windows and mice, Xerox PARC's innovations, and the Internet. The next time that you hear someone saying that government can't do anything well, give them a copy of this book.

This book is a fascinating, well-written exposition of Licklider's life and work, and even more interestingly, the birth of computer science in the United States. I've never before seen this story as a continuous whole, as opposed to a collection of independent breakthroughs. It is a fascinating narrative, and this is a great book.