J.C.R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor
The Computer as a Communication Device
J.C.R. Licklider, Robert W. Taylor. 1968. (View Paper → )
We believe that we are entering a technological age in which we will be able to interact with the richness of living information—not merely in the passive way that we have become accustomed to using books and libraries, but as active participants in an ongoing process, bringing something to it through our interaction with it, and not simply receiving something from it by our connection to it.
Licklider captured people’s imaginations with his predictions for the future. He was also working hard to make them happen, by building and orchestrating the research roadmap that would get us there.
He saw the power of online communication before most people, he knew how transformative it would be, and he wanted everyone to have access to it.
He predicted online communities of interests would happen, and that would make us happier than only having access to our local communities.