how the sixties counterculture shaped the personal computer industry
Hardcover, 310 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2005 by Viking.
An analysis of the political and cultural forces that gave rise to the personal computer chronicles its development through the people, politics, and social upheavals that defined its time, from a teenage anti-war protester who laid the groundwork for the PC revolution to the imprisoned creator of the first word processing software for the IBM PC.
I enjoy stories of Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay, and Stewart Brand as much as the next guy, but this does not deliver on connecting its interwoven LSD, Communes, and Antiwar aspects of some overlapping engineers to these stories. A decent history of People's Computer Company activist Fred Moore is in here.
Fascinating look at the often unheard birth of the personal computer. The book does a great job of painting a realistic picture of what the Bay Area tech scene looked like during the social revolution of the 1960s. My only gripe was that it was a bit long winded and referenced too many people that may or may not have been important to the overall story. If you are interested in computers and social movements then this book is perfect for you!
This is less a book and more a string of anecdotes - a little birdie once told me that even the author admits it was basically an excuse to string together a bunch of great stories he’d heard over the years. But they are great anecdotes and give a lot to chew over, especially in light of the continued tension between personalized v. centralized computing - a recurring theme of the book. Should be read paired with [b:Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128|69564|Regional Advantage Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128|AnnaLee Saxenian|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388287985s/69564.jpg|67405] to help understand the early history of the area and some of the forces that made the valley what it is.
An excellent book on how computers as we know them today were shaped. Recommended to anyone interested in technology or history.
This was just a fun break from serious reading, but I quite enjoyed it. Before Steve Jobs, before Bill Gates, there were the real pioneers who gave us personal computers, people like Doug Engelbart, who probably did more than either of the above. This is the story of those unsung folks. And of course all of this took place in the Bay area around San Francisco just as the anti-war and hippie movements were active. It was not an accident that these things happened in the same place at the same time.
