CS6751
Melissa Sandlin
HW #4 - October 21, 1997
J.C.R. Licklider 
J. C. R. Licklider, known as "Lick" to many, was a revolutionary thinker
for his time. In the 1960's, he saw the computer as a tool of communication
and was interested in the network of computers - accessing information
from one computer to another; resource sharing. From this line of thinking
Licklider was basically one of the forefathers of the Internet.
Joseph C. R. Licklider was born March 11, 1915 in St. Lousi Missouri. He
studied math, physics and psychology at Washington University in St. Loius,
recieving his Bachelors and Masters degrees. He obtained his PhD
from University of Rochester in New York. Licklider was a lecturer at Harvard
and an Associate Professor at MIT in the psycho-acoustics area and engineering
psychology. In the late 50's and early 60's is when Licklider
started his publishing of the early ideas behind the Internet. In 1957,
he was vice-president of Bolt Berank and Newman (BBN) and he was developing
his concepts. He published a paper, "Man-Computer
Symbiosis" in 1960. In 1962, Licklider was appointed the director
of ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the Department of Defence.
"Licklider noted that to make progress, each of the active researchers
needs a software base and a hardware facility more complex and more extensive
than he, could create in reasonable time. Licklider then went on to describe
his vision of a user at a remote terminal having access to a variety of
resources at several interconnected computer centers." [ The
Role of ARPA in the Development of the ARPANET, 1961-1972] . While
head of ARPA, Licklider developed time sharing - interactive use of computers
by several people at the same time. The funding of these projects also
led to the formation of Computer Science Departments at many universities
including MIT, SDC, Berkeley, and UCLA.
Licklider continued to head projects and departments
into the 70's and 80's and died in June 1990.
Detailed
Bio page
Informative Links
Memex.org
Digital
SRC: Licklider's Papers: "Man-Computer Symbiosis" & "The Computer as
a Communication Device"
The
History of the Net
A
Brief History of the Internet
ARPANET
Development of International Computer Network
Rheingold's
Tools for Thought: Chapter 7
Quotes
"Shakespeare could have been foreseeing the present situation ininformation
networking when he said, `... What's past is prologue; what's to come,
is yours and my discharge'."
- Licklider & Vezza
"Applications of Information Network", November,
1978,
If we could look in on the future at say, the year 2000, would we see
a unity, a federation, or afragmentation? That is: would we see a single
multi-purpose network encompassing all applications
and serving everyone? Or a more or less coherent system of intercommunicating
networks? Or an
incoherent assortment of isolated noncommunicating networks... The
middle alternative--the more or
less coherent network of networks-- appears to have a fairly high probability
and also to be desirable...
-Licklider and Vezza
1978
"In a few years men will be able to communicate more effectively through
a machine than face to face...When minds interact, new ideas emerge."
- Licklider and Robert Taylor
"I guess you could say I had a kind of religious conversion,"
- Licklider on the first interactive computer, the
PDP-1
1960
"Lick had a vision of a better way of computing.... Lick believed we could
do better and, more than any other single individual, saw to it that we
did."
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at gt4450b@prism.gatech.edu