{"id":35443,"date":"2019-10-31T22:04:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/blog\/the-dream-machine-istoriya-kompyuternoj-revolyutsii-glava-1-malchiki-iz-missuri\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T22:04:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:04:23","slug":"the-dream-machine-istoriya-kompyuternoj-revolyutsii-glava-1-malchiki-iz-missuri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/en\/blog\/news\/the-dream-machine-istoriya-kompyuternoj-revolyutsii-glava-1-malchiki-iz-missuri","title":{"rendered":"The Dream Machine: The Story of the Computer Revolution. Chapter 1. The Boys from Missouri","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Prologue<\/a><\/noindex><\/p>\n

Boys from Missouri<\/h3>\n

\nJoseph Carl Robert Licklider made a strong impression on people. Even in his early years, before he got involved with computers, he had a way of making everything clear to others.<\/p>\n

\"Lick was perhaps the most intuitively gifted genius I have ever known,\" William McGill later declared in an interview recorded shortly after Licklider's death in 1997. McGill explained in this interview that he first met Lick when he entered Harvard University as a psychology graduate student in 1948: \"Whenever I presented Lick with evidence of some mathematical relationships, I found that he already knew about those relationships. But he hadn't worked through them in detail; he just... knew them. He somehow could represent the flow of information and see various relationships that others, who merely manipulated mathematical symbols, could not see. It was so astounding that he became a real mystic to all of us: How the heck does Lick do this? How does he see these things?\"<\/p>\n

\"Talking to Lick about a problem,\" added McGill, who later served as president of Columbia University, \"boosted my intelligence by about thirty IQ points.\"<\/p>\n

(Thanks for the translation to Stanislav Sukhanitsky; if anyone wants to help with translations, please write to me privately or email alexey.stacenko@gmail.com)<\/i>
\n<\/a><\/noindex>
\nLick made a similarly deep impression on George A. Miller, who first began working with him at the Harvard Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory during World War II. \"Lick was the quintessential 'American guy' \u2014 tall, good-looking blonde who excelled at everything he attempted,\" Miller would write many years later. \"Incredibly smart and creative, yet hopelessly kind \u2014 when you made a mistake, Lick convinced everyone that you had just made the wittiest joke. He loved jokes. Many of my memories involve him recounting some delightful absurdity, usually from his own experience, while gesturing with a bottle of Coke in one hand.\"<\/p>\n

He never had a way of splitting people apart. At a time when Lick succinctly embodied the traits of a Missouri resident, no one could resist his one-sided smile; all his conversation partners smiled back. He viewed the world with warmth and friendliness, seeing every passerby as a good person. And this usually worked.<\/p>\n

After all, he was a guy from Missouri. The name itself originated generations ago in Alsace-Lorraine, a town located on the French-German border, but his family had lived in Missouri on both sides long before the Civil War. His father, Joseph Licklider, was a country boy from central Missouri, living near the town of Sedalia. Joseph also seemed to be a talented and energetic young man. In 1885, after his father died in a horse-related accident, twelve-year-old Joseph took on the responsibility of the family. Realizing that he, his mother, and his sister could not manage the farm on their own, he moved them all to St. Louis and began working at a local railroad station, until he sent his sister to high school and college. After he accomplished this, Joseph went to study at an advertising firm to learn about writing and design. And once he mastered these skills, he shifted to insurance, ultimately becoming an award-winning salesman and head of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

At the same time, during a meeting of the Baptist youth revival, Joseph Licklider caught the eye of Miss Margaret Robnett. \"I looked at her just once,\" he later said, \"and heard her sweet voice singing in the choir, and I knew I had found the woman I loved.\" He immediately began taking the train to her parents' farm every weekend, intending to marry her. He succeeded. Their only child was born in St. Louis on March 11, 1915. He was named Joseph after his father and Carl Robnett after his mother's older brother.<\/p>\n

The sunny expression of the child was clear. Joseph and Margaret were old enough to be the parents of their first child; he was forty-two, and she was thirty-four, and they were quite strict about religion and good behavior. But they were also a warm, loving couple who delighted in their child and constantly praised him. So did everyone else: young Robnett, as they called him at home, was not only the only son but also the only grandson on both sides of the family. As he grew up, his parents encouraged him to take piano and tennis lessons, and whatever he pursued, especially in intellectual areas. And Robnett did not disappoint them, maturing into a vibrant, energetic young man with a lively sense of humor, insatiable curiosity, and a constant love for technical things.<\/p>\n

When he was twelve, for example, like any other boy in St. Louis, he developed a passion for building model airplanes. Perhaps it was due to the burgeoning aircraft industry in his city. Maybe it was because of Lindbergh, who had just completed a solo round-the-world flight across the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane named the \"Spirit of St. Louis.\" Or perhaps it was because airplanes were the technological marvels of the generation. It didn't matter\u2014the boys of St. Louis were mad creators of model airplanes. And no one could recreate them better than Robnett Liklider. With his parents' permission, he transformed his room into something resembling a cork tree logging camp. He bought pictures and plans of airplanes and drew detailed diagrams of airplanes himself. He painstakingly cut templates from balsawood. And he spent all night piecing them together, covering wings and fuselage with cellophane, authentically painting the details, and undoubtedly going a bit overboard with model airplane glue. He was so good at it that one model kit company paid for his trip to an air show in Indianapolis, where he was able to show the fathers and sons present how the models were made.<\/p>\n

Then, as the time approached for his important sixteenth birthday, his interests shifted to cars. It wasn't a desire to drive them; he wanted to fully understand their structure and functioning. So, his parents allowed him to buy an old clunker on the condition that he wouldn't drive it beyond their long, winding road. <\/p>\n

Young Robnett happily took apart and reassembled this dream car over and over, starting with the engine and each time adding a new part to see what happened: 'Okay, this is how it really works.' Margaret Licklider, charmed by this budding technological genius, stood nearby as he worked under the car, handing him the tools he needed. He received his driving license on March 11, 1931, the day of his sixteenth birthday. In the following years, he refused to pay more than fifty dollars for a car, regardless of its condition, as he could repair it and make it run. (Faced with soaring inflation, he was forced to raise this limit to $150)<\/p>\n

The sixteen-year-old Rob, as he was now known to his classmates, grew tall, handsome, athletic, and friendly, with sun-bleached hair and blue eyes, bearing a striking resemblance to Lindbergh himself. He fiercely played competitive tennis (and continued until he was 20, when an injury prevented him from playing). And, of course, he had impeccable Southern manners. He had to have them: he was constantly surrounded by graceful Southern women. The large, old house in University City, a suburb of Washington University, was shared by the Lickliders with Joseph's mother, Margaret's married sister, her father, and another unmarried sister of Margaret. Each evening, since Robnett turned five, he had the duty and honor of offering his aunt his arm, escorting her to the dining table, and presenting her with the kind of attention expected of a gentleman. Even as an adult, Lick was known as an incredibly courteous and tactful person who rarely raised his voice in anger, who almost always wore a jacket and bow tie even at home, and who found it physically impossible to sit when a woman entered the room.<\/p>\n

However, Rob Liklider also grew into a young man who had his own opinions. When he was a very small boy, according to the story he would constantly tell later, his father served as a minister in their local Baptist church. When Joseph prayed, his son's job was to crawl under the organ keys and operate the keys, assisting the elderly organist who couldn\u2019t manage it alone. One sleepy Saturday evening, when Robnett was ready to fall asleep under the organ, he heard the call from his father's congregation: \"Those of you seeking salvation, stand up!\" In response, he instinctively jumped to his feet and bumped his head against the underside of the organ keys. Instead of finding salvation, he saw stars.<\/p>\n

This experience, as Lik said, gave him an instant insight into the scientific method: Always be as cautious as possible in your work and declaration of your faith.<\/p>\n

A quarter of a century later after this incident, of course, it\u2019s impossible to determine whether young Robnett truly learned this lesson after bumping into the keys. But judging by his achievements throughout his subsequent life, it can be said that he certainly received this lesson somewhere. Behind his meticulous desire to get things right and insatiable curiosity was a complete lack of tolerance for careless work, easy solutions, or convoluted answers. He refused to settle for mediocrity. A young man who would later speak of the \"Intergalactic Computer System\" and publish professional papers with titles like \"System of Systems\" and \"Frame-less, Wireless Shocker for Rats\" exhibited a mind that was constantly seeking new things and engaged in constant play.<\/p>\n

He also had a hint of mischievous anarchy. For instance, when he encountered official foolishness, he never directly resisted it, believing that a gentleman never makes a scene; it was in his blood. He enjoyed subverting it. When he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity during his freshman year at the University of Washington, he was informed that every member must always carry two kinds of cigarettes, in case a senior member asked for a smoke at any time of day or night. Not being a smoker, he quickly went out and bought the worst Egyptian cigarettes he could find in St. Louis. Nobody asked him for a smoke after that.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his eternal refusal to settle for ordinary things led him to endless questions about the meaning of life. He also changed his identity. He was 'Robnett' at home and 'Rob' to his classmates, but now, seemingly to emphasize his new status as a college student, he started calling himself by his middle name: 'Call me Lick.' Since then, only his oldest friends had the slightest idea of who 'Rob Licklider' was. <\/p>\n

Among all the things that the young man, Lick, could do in college, he chose to study \u2014 he happily grew as a specialist in various fields of knowledge, and every time he heard someone getting excited about a new area of study, he too wanted to try exploring that area. In his first year of study, he specialized in art, then switched to engineering. Then he shifted to physics and mathematics. And what is most confusing, he also became a specialist in the real world: by the end of his second year, thieves had emptied his father's insurance company, leading to its closure, leaving Joseph without work and his son unable to pay for his education. Lick was forced to leave school for a year and worked as a waiter at a drive-in restaurant. It was one of the few jobs available during the Great Depression. (Joseph Licklider was going crazy just sitting at home surrounded by southern women, and one day he found a gathering of Baptists in the countryside who needed a minister; he and Margaret ultimately spent the rest of their days serving one church after another, feeling the happiest they had ever been in their lives.) When Lick finally returned to his studies, bringing with him an inexhaustible enthusiasm essential for higher education, one of his part-time jobs was overseeing experimental animals in the psychology department. And as he began to understand what types of research the professors were conducting, he realized that his quest had come to an end.<\/p>\n

What he encountered was 'physiological' psychology \u2014 this field of knowledge was at the peak of its growth at that time. Today, this area of knowledge is commonly referred to as neuroscience: they focus on the precise, detailed study of the brain and its functions.<\/p>\n

This discipline has roots going back to the 19th century, when scientists like Thomas Huxley, Darwin's most ardent supporter, began to argue that behavior, experience, thoughts, and even consciousness have a material basis located in the brain. This was quite a radical position at the time, as it touched upon not only science but also religion. Indeed, many scientists and philosophers in the early nineteenth century tried to assert not only that the brain is made of unusual matter but that it represents the seat of reason and the repository of the soul, defying all laws of physics. Observations, however, soon showed otherwise. In early 1861, a systematic study of patients with brain damage conducted by French physiologist Paul Broca established the first connections between a specific mental function\u2014language\u2014and a specific region of the brain: the area of the left hemisphere now known as Broca's area. By the early 20th century, it was known that the brain is an electrical organ, with impulses transmitted through billions of thin, cable-like cells called neurons. By 1920, it was established that the regions of the brain responsible for motor function and touch are located in two parallel strands of neuronal tissue situated on the sides of the brain. It was also known that the centers responsible for vision are located at the back of the brain\u2014ironically, this area is the farthest from the eyes\u2014while the centers for hearing are located where one might logically expect: in the temporal lobe, just behind the ears.<\/p>\n

However, even this work was relatively crude. Since the moment Lick encountered this field of knowledge in the 1930s, researchers began using increasingly complex electronic equipment that was utilized by radio and telephone companies. With the help of electroencephalography, or EEG, they were able to listen in on the electrical activity of the brain, obtaining precise values from detectors placed on the head. Scientists could also penetrate the skull and apply a very precisely defined stimulus to the brain itself, then assess how the nerve response spread throughout various parts of the nervous system. (By 1950, in fact, they could stimulate and read the activity of individual neurons.) Throughout this process, scientists were able to identify the neural circuits of the brain with unprecedented accuracy. In short, physiologist-psychologists moved away from the early 19th-century view that the brain was something mystical and transitioned to a 20th-century perspective where the brain was something knowable. It was a system of incredible complexity, to be more precise. Nevertheless, it was a system that did not differ significantly from the increasingly complex electronic systems that physicists and engineers were constructing in their laboratories.<\/p>\n

Lick was in paradise. Physiological psychology had everything he loved: mathematics, electronics, and the challenge of decoding the most complex device\u2014the brain. He threw himself into this field, and during the course of his studies, which he certainly could not have foreseen, he made his first giant step toward that office in the Pentagon. Considering everything that happened before, Lick's early fascination with psychology might have seemed like an aberration, a side path diverting a twenty-five-year-old man from his ultimate career choice in computer science. But in fact, his background in psychology served as the foundation of his concept of using computers. In reality, all the pioneers of computer science from his generation began their careers in the 1940s and 1950s, armed with knowledge in mathematics, physics, or electrical engineering, their technological orientation driving them to focus on creating and improving gadgets\u2014making machines larger, faster, and more reliable. Lick was unique in that he brought a deep respect for human capabilities to this field: the abilities to perceive, adapt, make choices, and find entirely new ways to solve previously unsolvable problems. As an experimental psychologist, he found these abilities as sophisticated and admirable as the capacity of computers to execute algorithms. And that\u2019s why, for him, the real challenge was forming connections between computers and the people who used them, to harness the power of both.<\/p>\n

In any case, at this stage, Lick's growth trajectory was clear. In 1937, he graduated from the University of Washington with three degrees in physics, mathematics, and psychology. He stayed on for another year to earn a master's degree in psychology. (The record of obtaining a master's degree awarded to 'Robert W. Licklider' was hardly the last mention of him that appeared in print.) In 1938, he enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Rochester in New York\u2014one of the leading national centers for studying the auditory region of the brain, the part that tells us how we ought to hear. <\/p>\n

Lick's departure from Missouri not only affected his address. For the first two decades of his life, Lick was a model son to his parents, diligently attending Baptist meetings and prayer gatherings three or four times a week. However, after he left home, his foot never crossed the church threshold again. He could not bring himself to tell his parents, knowing that they would be profoundly hurt to learn he had abandoned the faith they cherished. Yet, he found the constraints of Southern Baptist life to be incredibly stifling. More importantly, he could not profess a faith he no longer felt. As he later noted, when asked about his feelings during prayer meetings, he replied, 'I felt nothing.'<\/p>\n

If many things changed, at least one remained: Lick was a star in the psychology department at the University of Washington, and he was a star in Rochester. For his Ph.D. dissertation, he created the first map of neural activity in the auditory region. Specifically, he pinpointed regions that were critically important for distinguishing various sound frequencies \u2014 the primary ability that allows one to pick out the rhythm of music. Ultimately, he became such an expert in vacuum tube-based electronics \u2014 not to mention becoming a true magician in setting up experiments \u2014 that even his professor came to him for advice.<\/p>\n

Lick also distinguished himself at Swarthmore College, located outside of Philadelphia, where he served as a postdoctoral student after earning his Ph.D. in 1942. During this short time spent at the college, he demonstrated that, contrary to Gestalt theories of information perception, magnetic coils placed around the subjects' occipital regions did not distort perception \u2014 nonetheless, they did cause the subjects' hair to stand on end.<\/p>\n

Overall, 1942 was not a good year for carefree living. Lick's career, like that of many other researchers, was poised to take a much more serious turn.<\/p>\n

Completed Translations<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n