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

As the director of command-and-control research at the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the Pentagon, Licklider in 1962 was an unlikely bureaucrat with a big dream. He was an experimental psychologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and computers were considered by most people as giant calculators run by punch cards. Nevertheless, Licklider envisioned computers as having a symbiosis with people that would empower individuals and be a medium of expression. Licklider used the Pentagon's money and interest in interactive computing for the battlefield to realize his dream. The result is the modern-day Internet. While many people were involved in the creation and implementation of the Internet, Waldrop argues heartily that Licklider was the inspiration and major catalyst. In this biography, Waldrop provides a personalized history of the computing revolution told through the life and times of one of its greatest visionaries. Viking, 2001, 502 p., hardcover, $29.95.