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What The Dormouse Said
from the roll-over-roll-over dept.
John Markoff, veteran technology reporter for the Times, is the first to comprehensively tell this story of the pre-history of the PC. Markoff, best known for Cyberpunk and Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, explodes the conventional notion that the PC replaced the mini-computer in the same way that the mini-computer replaced the mainframe -- by a sort of evolutionary selection within the computer business, by persistently investigating the roots of the PC -- its unsung pioneers, its user interface, and the culture of open-source software in the San Francisco drug and anti-war culture of the late 1950s and 1960s.
Most histories of the personal computer begin with Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Apple in 1976, but while hanging out at SAIL in the mid 1970s, and at the First West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, I heard highly attenuated versions of the folklore that Markoff has only now, after nearly 30 years, run to ground. Conventional histories of the PC make passing reference to the MITS Altair (1974) before going on the talk about the Apple, the IBM PC (1981) and what followed. The more sophisticated would conspiratorially tell the story of how Steve Jobs "stole the idea" for the Macintosh from Xerox's fabled Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as they were "fumbling the future," and nearly everyone knew that Bill Gates then stole the ideas from Apple.
But the truth of those half-heard folktales from my youth is that nearly every concept in the personal computer predates all of this, in a delightfully picaresque tale that starts in the late 1950s and weaves together computers, LSD, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the Vietnam War and dozens of characters.
Markoff has painstakingly researched the men (and a few women) who populated the cutting edge of the computer revolution in 1960s San Francisco, capturing an oral history of the PC never before recorded. Central to Dormouse is the story of Doug Engelbart, the "tragic hero" of computing, and the man who invented -- and demonstrated -- virtually every aspect of modern computing as much as a decade before the PC. Engelbart presided over the ground-breaking 1968 demo of his Augment concept, which included multiple overlapping windows, the original mouse, a screen cursor, video conferencing, hyperlinks and cut-and-paste -- virtually every aspect of the modern PC user interface three decades later. Yet the combination of Engelbart's ego and his poor management skills doomed the project, and his best team members leaked over to Xerox PARC, where they worked on the equally doomed "Alto" workstation, source of Steve Job's inspiration.
In parallel to this central story are those of the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL), the Free University, the People's Computer Company, and the Homebrew Computer Club, all located within a few files of the center of the San Francisco peninsula. SAIL, in its first incarnation under John McCarthy and Les Earnest, may have been the first place where computers (or the powerful access to a time-sharing server) really were "personal," and was almost certainly the birthplace of the first true computer game, SpaceWar. It was the locus of naked hot-tub parties, a porn video, and not a little bit of LSD (taken both as serious experimentation and recreationally) that fueled a cast of characters dodging the Vietnam war at Stanford and at the ARPA-funded Stanford Research Institute and creating a counter-culture. Virtually everyone linked to the genesis of the PC spent some time at SAIL, including Alan Kay, who conceived the first notebook computer, who appears first at SAIL before running into Englebart and his enrapturing demo of Augment, leading him to PARC and eventually Apple.
Dormouse is peppered with odd juxtapositions and combinations of characters including Fred Moore, the anti-war activist and single father who knit the community together with a pile of special punch cards and a knitting needle and helped create the People's Computer Company and the Homebrew Computer Club. Another, Steve Dompier, was widely accused -- falsely, Markoff convincingly reports -- of being the source for the infamous distribution of Gates' early Altair BASIC. (Was this the eThrough the whole story Stewart Brand -- of Whole Earth Catalog fame -- pops up "Zelig-like" at nearly every turn. The list goes on: Larry Tesler, Ken Kesey, Joan Baez, Ted Nelson, Lee Felsenstein, Bill English, Janis Joplin, and Bill Gates.
If the book has a problem, this is it. Markoff neither presents a first-person oral history nor is he able to tease a single central narrative thread out of this creative soup. He tells several interwoven stories, but there is so large a cast of characters that one must be a dedicated reader (or have a previous knowledge of some of the events described) to keep everything straight. Without a single narrative, the book returns several times to the start of a timeline, retracing it from another perspective, and after a while you feel the need for a map.
Markoff's own "Takedown" shows that with a clear narrative arc he is a wonderful writer, and while the complexity of the tale may keep away casual readers, Markoff does the entire technology industry a great service by capturing these tales while most of the primary sources are still alive. The central story of Doug Engelbart deserves a book of its own -- a better book than the nearly unreadable Bootstrapping by Thierry Bardini -- and one can hope that Markoff revisits the trove of original material he located for this story to write that book.
Dormouse is an essential "prequel" to Michael Hiltzik's excellent Dealers of Lightning, the definitive work (so far) on Xerox PARC, and belongs on every bookshelf that includes Katie Hafner's Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet.
For anyone who thinks they know anything, or wants to know anything, about the real roots of the PC revolution and the pioneers who never got famous, this book is required reading.
You can purchase What The Dormouse Said from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Wasn't there a free "network" in SF in the 60's? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wasn't there a free "network" in SF in the 60's (Score:5, Informative)
Basically Licklidder had the notion of computers being more interactive than they were (the punch card era), and was in charge of ARPA at the right time and gave a whole lot of money to colleges/research groups/practically anybody who had the same notion. I'm sure he's mentioned in this book (Dormouse) because I believe he funded Englebart.
I definitely plan on reading this book, but I would say that "The Dream Machine" belongs on the shelf because as well.
Parent
Re:Wasn't there a free "network" in SF in the 60's (Score:2)
Re:Wasn't there a free "network" in SF in the 60's (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like you might be talking about Community Memory. Now, for some shameless whoring:
Steven Levy's Hackers [amazon.com] has a chapter about the Community Memory project.
Parent
Re:Wasn't there a free "network" in SF in the 60's (Score:2)
Re:Wasn't there a free "network" in SF in the 60's (Score:3)
It effected it very little. (Score:2, Insightful)
Computing while high is a relatively recent development that only became possible with the invention of the computer mouse. You can't innovate without concentration.
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:5, Interesting)
I've known quite a few very bright computer people, and an incredibly bright programmer or two, who were interested in having a good time and computers were a part of that occasionally. I'm pretty sure that if they worked their asses off for one day in two, they'd outdo me working halfass for four days.
Parent
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:2)
No, seriously, what was Steve Jobs smoking? I gotta get me some of that stuff.
At the time... (Score:2)
This was previous to the discovery that the first would drive business around the world and the second would destroy as much as it seemed to help. It was really just a bunch of people that thought they were expanding their minds, whether through silicon or drugs.
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:5, Insightful)
Big Brother and the Drug Warriors would like to thank you for spreading our propoganda. Now here's a coupon for a free Big Mac-- go see what's on TV.
I think you've swollowed too much of bullshit that the Drug War has pushed at you.
Many people who are into math, technology and study are also into drugs. Many are not.
Some people actually understand advanced topics in physics, math & engineering better when they are high. The secret is that they weren't high all the time-- because sometimes, as you said, you can't innovate without concentration.
It's not like this just happened in the 60s either. People have always done drugs, and some people have used those experiences to help create incredible things. Right now there are geniuses taking LSD, and some of those people are going to go on and do great things.
Unfortunately, many people who did drugs in the past would be persecuted if this knowledge became public. I bet your parents smoked pot once in a while-- it's too bad they can't be honest about it.
For example, many of the key developers of Chaos Theory did drugs, and they were pretty open about it.
Al Gore, George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been drug users, and they somehow became 3 of the most powerful people in the world.
Parent
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's a hint. Drugs don't make you a genius, and the people which think they understand things better on drugs are generally just overcoming personal inhibitions.
And how exactly you have gotten to the idea that Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most powerful people in the world is beyond me. (Besides, there are far better ex
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It effected it very little. (Score:4, Interesting)
The cover was planet Earth, shown from orbit. It contained technology -- beautiful stuff, from hand-held power plows to the first PC's to cheap land cruisers. I submit that the WEC was more symbolic of the counterculture than the Time magazine articles that formed the basis of much of the public perception of the movement.
A lot of software developers started then, when - again - the rules were being challenged, and the people vacuum in the industry became attractive; few colleges knew what a CS degree should even look like, but the counterculture also espoused "Look, you can do it, give it a try" and encouraged people to step out of the ego-crushing conformity pressed on the public via wide dissemination of corporate advertising memes, e.g. the barely-subliminal messages coming out of GM advertisements (Longer! Lower! Wider!).
As a result, people were encouraged to think out of the box for the first time in a long time, a necessary breakout from the corporate-government-proprietary wartime morality that lasted well into the 50's.
The world around us was pretty grey -- McCarthy was in power. Down at the bottom there were people saying I can have power too, I can be empowered, I'll be a computer programmer and it doesn't require me to compete at the beach to be important. That's what drove the counterculture into adopting the PC as a causus belli. Sorry about the stereotype, but the geek cliche came from that.
Nullus stercus, ipi eram.
Parent
no 8bit? (Score:2, Insightful)
no MSX?
i dunno, i don't consider any history of the pre-PC days complete without at least a reference to CPC-464's, Atmos, and MSX.
MSX, at least, taught some sectors of the computing industry some serious lessons..
Re:no 8bit? (Score:2, Informative)
Personal Computer was a generic term, a description for a class of systems, not a specific implementation (like the IBM 5150 Personal Computer)
And what about... (Score:3, Funny)
Not directly (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not directly (Score:2)
**SPOILERS** (Score:5, Funny)
har.
MOD PARENT FUNNY! (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't believe someone would moderate this "troll". It's from a song by Jefferson Airplane called "White Rabbit". The title of the book is derived from a line in the song!
Parent
Re:MOD PARENT FUNNY! (Score:2, Informative)
Grace slick was just telling us to remember what the Dormouse said (what DID the dormouse say?), after which she issues the command, "Feed your head!"
Re:MOD PARENT FUNNY! (Score:3, Interesting)
"You might as well say", added the Dormouse, which seemed to be talking in its sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"
The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its eyes. "Of course: just what I was going to remark myself."
Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep "Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle----" and went on so long that they had to pi
John Markoff has no Credibility (Score:5, Insightful)
Always looking for a new angle (Score:3, Funny)
To make it in this biz you need to continuously find a new angle to make a new book that sells. Let's see: nobody has done a book on PCs were a result of drugged-up hippies. Dig a few facts, polish them up and add some poetic license and we're away with another best seller.
My theory on Silicon Valley is that a bunch of hippies in
Marketingspeak... (Score:5, Insightful)
means
"I was recruited to advertise for it on slashdot."
S(FAFABI*)CNR
*for any false accusations, but I
The wrong side of the fence (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The wrong side of the fence (Score:2, Insightful)
Finally! (Score:2)
I heard many years ago that Deadheads helped create the internet and sense of community.
Re:Finally! (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
A few what??? (Score:5, Funny)
Does this mean they are all in the same subdirectory?
I loved this book... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/729 [gutenberg.org]
_Hacker's: Heroes of the Computer Revolution_ (Score:3, Informative)
_Hacker's_ (used by Levy in the best sense of the word) is a great way to learn some (relatively ) early history of computing and the people who created it.
Watch the movie.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I saw the premier in New York, and have no doubt that Markoff is just out to make another buck. Markoff attempted to get a movie called 'Takedown' produced and released while Kevin Mitnick was being held without a trial. In the movie, Mitnick is found guilty, and they wanted to release it before his case ever went to trial, which would have severely reduced his chances of getting a fair trial.
Aero
But Richard Stallman wasn't a druggie (Score:3, Informative)
Why do we have such computers today? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why do we have such computers today? (Score:3)
I'm not trying to get be overly difficult here (watching Cowboy Bebop on my Mac mini MythTV frontend; how could I, with such a blatant stereotype?) but I have just one thing to say to you:
What the fuck?
The tra
Les Earnest at SAIL (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Everybody knows... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Everybody knows... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What The Dormouse Said? (Score:2)
Re:What the fuck? (Score:5, Insightful)
You've obviously never lived in Berkeley.
Parent
Re:What the fuck? (Score:4, Interesting)
Prior to mid-1970's, a typical "computer engineer" was wearing a necktie and lab overalls. From about 1980's, a typical computer engineer is wearing a t-shirt advocating his favorite rock group, fantasy world or political agenda. Do you really think it had nothing to do with social changes in 1970's California - related, but not limited, to the drug culture?
Parent
Re:What the fuck? (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh, hardly. You should do some reading of history before making proclamations like these. The typical hardware engineer was a professor working in the California or New York college systems, both of which were largely dominated by left-wing liberals in the 1960s. Prior to the mid 1970s, computing was an esoteric enough practice that only a few hundred people could do it; therefore primadonnas were tolerated, and t
Are you unaware: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Are you unaware: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, LSD was discovered by Albert Hofmann, a chemist working for Sandoz Pharmaceutical, in Basel, Switzerland in 1938. Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert were fired from Harvard in 1963 after establishing the Psychedelic Research Project in 1960. The "Summer of Love" took place in 1967. The CIA first started experimenting with LSD in 1951. I imagine they've pretty much got it down to a science by now.
billy - "But we decide which is right And which is an illusion"
Re:What the door mouse left..... (Score:3, Interesting)
Another idiot modded "Insightful"...
The '60's "love children" caused an economic bust in the '70's? What kind of bullshit is that? Since when were '60's "flower children" in charge of the US economy?
As I recall, it was people like Johnson and Nixon who undermined the gold standard and crashed the "Go-Go" years - which were mostly about people like Bernie Cornfield and Robert Vesco anyway...Not to mention prolonging an expensive failed war...
Not to mention that the Sixties had just as many and varied pe