The Dream Machine: J. C. R. Licklider and the revolution that made
computing personal by M. Mitchell Waldrop, Viking, $27.95, ISBN
0670899763
MITCHELL WALDROP had a grant to write a book about software. While he was
wandering around trying to figure out exactly what that meant, he found that
many of the people he talked to mentioned J. C. R. Licklider as a seminal
influence. The Dream Machine had found its subject. It鈥檚 both a history
of the ideas and people that created the world of responsive computers that we
swear at today, and a biography of 鈥淟ick鈥�, as he was universally known.
Books about software are usually a swift swap for sleeping tablets. This one
bucks that trend. It is unexpectedly and immensely readable. Part of the reason
is the detail. On Licklider鈥檚 arrival at IBM Research, for example, when offered
a choice between a giant 鈥淭hink鈥� sign and a picture of chairman Thomas J.
Watson, Jr, for his office wall, he chose the wall.
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And the other part is all down to Licklider鈥檚 personality. Relentless and
driven鈥攈e spent 50 years in pursuit of interactive computing鈥攈e also
inspired brilliant work in others. He helped and funded the beginnings of the
ARPAnet and the early research at Xerox Parc. Much of his life was spent in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, turning MIT into the computer science giant it is
today.
He was also, as the book makes clear, an immensely disorganised manager. You
can鈥檛 have everything.