From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: jsteve@superglobalmegacorp.com (Jason Stevens) Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2017 21:29:07 +0800 Subject: [TUHS] Were all of you.. Hippies? In-Reply-To: <20170320221759.0581C18C082@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> References: <20170320221759.0581C18C082@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> Message-ID: <60725137-6AEB-4C3D-A705-FD66A4AA0C59@superglobalmegacorp.com> Speaking of Licklider, here is an amazingly prophetic video from 1972 https://youtu.be/GjZ7ktIlSM0 On March 21, 2017 6:17:59 AM GMT+08:00, Noel Chiappa wrote: > > From: Steffen Nurpmeso > > > This "We owe it all to the Hippies" > >Well, yes and no. Read "Hackers". There wasn't a tremendous overlap >between >the set of 'nerds' (specifically, computer nerds) and 'hippies', >especially in >the early days. Not that the two groups were ideologically opposed, or >incompatible, or anything like that. Just totally different. > >Later on, of course, there were quite a few hackers who were also >'hippies', >to some greater or lesser degree - more from hackers taking on the >hippie >vibe, than the other way around, I reckon. (I think that to be a true >computer >nerd, you have to start down that road pretty early on, and with a >pretty >severe commitment - so I don't think a _lot_ of hippied turned into >hackers. >Although I guess the same thing, about starting early, is true of >really >serious musicians.) > > > "The real legacy of the 60s generation is the Computer Revolution" > >Well, there is something to that (and I think others have made this >observation). The hippie mentality had a lot of influence on everyone >in that >generation - including the computer nerds/hackers. Now, the hackers may >have >had a larger, impact, long-term, than the hippies did - but in some >sense a >lot of hippie ideals are reflected in the stuff a lot of hackers built: >today's computer revolution can be seen as hippie idealism filtered >through >computer nerds... > >But remember things like this, from the dust-jacket of the biography of >Prof. Licklider: > >"More than a decade will pass before personal computers emerge from the > garages of Silicon Valley, and a full thirty years before the Internet > explosion of the 1990s. The word computer still has an ominous tone, >conjuring up the image of a huge, intimidating device hidden away in an >over-lit, air-conditioned basement, relentlessly processing punch cards >for >some large institution: _them_. Yet, sitting in a nondescript office in >McNamara's Pentagon, a quiet ... civilian is already planning the >revolution > that will change forever the way computers are perceived. Somehow, the >occupant of that office ... has seen a future in which computers will >empower >individuals, instead of forcing them into rigid conformity. He is >almost > alone in his conviction that computers can become not just super-fast >calculating machines, but joyful machines: tools that will serve as new >media >of expression, inspirations to creativity, and gateways to a vast world >of > online information. > >Now, technically Lick wasn't a hippie (he was, after all, 40 years old >in >1965), and he sure didn't have a lot of hippie-like attributes - but he >was, >in some ways, an ideological close relative of some hippies. > > Noel -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: