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

Author - M. Mitchell Waldrop ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Viking Adult was reviewed on 11-Dec-2008.

Search ISBN:B00008MNVW offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal Reference Book. Classifications : General Computers & Internet Bargain Books Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General AAS Computers & Internet Bargain Books Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General History Bargain Books Custom . Click the following link to view the cover of The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal.

Related topics: General. Bargain Books. Custom Stores. Specialty Stores. Books. General AAS. Bargain Books. Custom Stores. Specialty Stores. Books.

1) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. "The Dream Machine" is billed as the story of J.C.R. Licklider, one of the main driving forces behind the research and engineering of personal computing. However, at least half of the book actually consists of general computer science history having little directly to do with Licklider, but which rather serves as context for Licklider´s long and varied career. Well, it seemed to me that both aspects were handled very well by the author Mr. Waldrop and I am certainly much more educated now on computer science.

Though quite long at nearly 500 pages, the book was actually a page turner for me as the style of the prose is closer to that of a novel than of a textbook. I found the transformation of government funding from virtually unlimited in the ´50s and ´60s (e.g. the massive SAGE project) to greatly budget constrained in the ´70s fascinating, as well as the various contractors´ reactions to the changing federal priorities.

I give this 4.5 stars as it could have used a bit more focus on the purported subject, Licklider. Highly recommended for anyone with a strong interest in computers and software.¤

2) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. For anyone who wants to know the history behind the personal computer revolution, this book is a must read. The author was a senior writer for Science magazine and understands both the technology and the people involved. There´s almost no fluff in the book´s 475-pages of fact-rich, well-written prose. My only complain it that, along with pictures of people, I´d have loved to have seen pictures and diagrams of the early equipment he describes.

--Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology and Commentary for The Lord of the Rings¤

3) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. If there such a thing as an "epic" story of computer science, then M. Mitchell Waldrop´s The Dream Machine is it. Although it purports to be the story of J.C.R. Licklider, and the birth of personal computing, this book is much more than that. It takes us from the edges of the computer science revolution, through the development of the modern computing industry and the World Wide Web.

Waldrop spends more time exploring the shadowy edges of the rise of computer science in America, and the intellectuals whose raw thinking provided the structure around which computing would develop. Giants like Norbert Weiner and Claude Shannon, and more obscure players like John Atanasoff of Iowa State University are given more thoughtful attention here than in most popular history accounts that I´ve encountered. Not only are their concrete accomplishments covered with clarity and understandability, but the thinking that got them there is attended to as well.

Of course, among the cast of great individuals is Licklider, whose efforts are worthy of the title billing Waldrop gives him. J.C.R. Licklider was a computer scientist before there was computer science, in any practical sense. While Lick (as everyone called him) himself, and the voice of technical accuracy, would likely disagree with that assertion, I stand beside it. Licklider was first a scientist, and he applied those core principles to developing his ideas in computing; computer science.

However, Waldrop´s book does not feel like it was about Licklider, per se - despite a very intimate coverage of the man. Instead, the book remains focused on the growth of the intellectual concepts, and the practical technology that rose from those ideas. The scope of characters and technical detail covered by the book is remarkable, and yet it remains a readable and compelling story. The science is clear and understandable to individuals with an interest in the subject, without requiring a deep background (although, those with deeper backgrounds will still find the book enjoyable, and original).¤

4) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. A graduate course in a book! A tour through historical theories, accounts, and events that made up the development of the modern computer and the Net. Far more extensive than just the story of Kicklider, a historical overview of many of the minds at that time and the events that converged to form the new informaton era.¤

5) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. If The Dream Machine were a novel, you might conclude the author used every writer´s technique to make it a thriller. Even though you know the outcome, you wonder how the many "miracles" and lucky breaks it took for the dream to become reality.¤

6) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. While most people may not be familiar with the name J. C. R. Licklider, he was the guiding spirit behind the greatest revolution of the modern era. At a time when most computers were big, ponderous mainframes, he envisioned them as desktop tools that could empower individuals, foster creativity, and allow the sharing of information all over the world. Working from an obscure office in the depths of the Pentagon, he set in motion the forces that could make his vision real. Writing with the same novelistic flair that made his Complexity "the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year" (The Washington Post), Waldrop presents the history of this great enterprise and the first full-scale portrait of the man whose dream of a "human-computer symbiosis" changed the course of science and culture, gave us the modern world of computing, and laid the foundation for the Internet age.

"Waldrop´s account of [Licklider´s] and many others´ world-transforming contributions is compelling." (John Allen Paulos, The New York Times Book Review)

"A masterpiece! A mesmerizing but balanced and comprehensive look at the making of the information revolution." (John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox PARC, and coauthor of The Social Life of Information)¤

7) Hardcover Book The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Viking Adult. 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¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Jan-2009, , 110-770-740-430-950-601-VWB-B6B-UKB-90B-8

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal, Book, Image © Viking Adult

Search: Viking Adult, Book Posters, Book Art