What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry“This makes entertaining reading. Many accounts of the birth of personal computing have been written, but this is the first close look at the drug habits of the earliest pioneers.” —New York Times Most histories of the personal computer industry focus on technology or business. John Markoff’s landmark book is about the culture and consciousness behind the first PCs—the culture being counter– and the consciousness expanded, sometimes chemically. It’s a brilliant evocation of Stanford, California, in the 1960s and ’70s, where a group of visionaries set out to turn computers into a means for freeing minds and information. In these pages one encounters Ken Kesey and the phone hacker Cap’n Crunch, est and LSD, The Whole Earth Catalog and the Homebrew Computer Lab. What the Dormouse Said is a poignant, funny, and inspiring book by one of the smartest technology writers around. |
Contents
2Augmentation | |
3RedDiaper Baby | |
4Free | |
5Dealing Lightning | |
6Scholars and Barbarians | |
7Momentum | |
8Borrowing Fire from the Gods | |
Acknowledgments | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal ... John Markoff No preview available - 2006 |
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal ... John Markoff No preview available - 2006 |
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal ... John Markoff No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
activist Alan Kay Albrecht antiwar ARPA ARPAnet artificial intelligence asked became become began Berkeley Bill English building California called campus Cap’n Crunch computer scientist Corporation counterculture created culture decade decided demonstration developed display Doug Engelbart drug Duvall early Earnest electronic engineers experience Fadiman Fred Moore Free University funding graduate student hackers high school hobbyists Homebrew human idea industry Kay’s keyboard laboratory Larry Tesler later Les Earnest Licklider machine magnetic mainframe math McCarthy McCarthy’s meeting Memex Menlo Park Midpeninsula military Moore’s Law movement organization Palo Alto PARC Pentagon People’s Computer Company personal computing personal-computer political psychedelic realized Research Center SAIL San Francisco screen shared Silicon Valley sixties Spacewar Stewart Brand Stolaroff Taylor Tesler time-sharing tiny told took ultimately Valley’s Vietnam vision Warren Whole Earth Catalog Xerox young