J.C.R. Licklider
Much like Vannevar Bush, J.C.R. Licklider's contribution to the development of the Internet consists of ideas not inventions. He envisioned the need for networked computers with simple user interfaces. His thoughts predicted graphical computing, point-and -click interfaces, digital libraries, e-commerce, online banking, and software that would live on a network and migrate to wherever it was needed.
Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, known simply as J.C.R. or "Lick" was born in St. Louis, Mo in 1915. He attended Washington State University in St. Louis where he received three bachelor's degrees in physics, math, and psychology. He did his doctoral work in psychoacoustics (the psychophysiology of the auditory system). In 1942, he went to study at Harvard's Psychoacoustics Laboratory where he did work for the Air Force to find answers for the communication problems confronted by crewman in loud bomber aircraft.
He became fascinated with information technology and went to MIT in 1950 as an associate professor, where he worked on a committee that instituted the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and set up a psychology curriculum for engineering students. By the late 1950's he realized that his mathematical models of pitch perception had become too intricate to solve, even with the analog computers then on hand, and that he would not be able to form a functioning mechanical model and advance the theory of psychoacoustics as he had liked.
In reaction to this revelation, in 1957 Licklider spent a day quantifying the amount of time it took him to perform the individual tasks of collecting, sorting, and studying information, and then measured the time it took him to make decisions supported by the data once it was gathered. He discovered that the preparatory work took nearly 85% of the time, and that the decision could then be formed almost instantly once the background information was available. This exercise had a potent effect, and convinced him that one of the most valuable long term contributions of computer technology would be to supply automated, exceedingly fast support systems for human decision making.
Licklider promptly recognized that minicomputers were becoming powerful enough to support the type of automated library systems that Vannevar Bush had represented. In 1959, Licklider wrote his first important book, titled "Libraries of the Future", about how a computer could supply an automated library with concurrent remote use by numerous different people through access to a shared database.
Licklider also saw that interactive computers could supply more than a library purpose, and could furnish immense value as automated assistants. He shared his ideas in an original paper in 1960 called Man-Computer Symbiosis, in which he depicted a computer assistant that could answer questions, execute simulation modeling, graphically display answers, and generalize solutions for new situations from prior experience. Like Norbert Wiener, Licklider envisioned a close symbiotic relationship between computer and human, including advanced computerized interfaces with the brain.
Licklider also quickly valued the might of computer networks, and foretold the effects of technological distribution, distinguishing how the spread of computers, programs, and information among a multitude of computers joined by a network would create a system more powerful than could be assembled by any one organization. In August, 1962, Licklider and Welden Clark expanded on these ideas in the the paper "On-Line Man Computer Communication", one of the first concepts of the future Internet.
In October, 1962, Licklider was employed to be Director of the IPTO recently established by DARPA. His task was to find a way to actualize his networking vision and interconnect the Dept.of Defense's main computers. He began by writing a series of memos to the other members of the team identifying the benefits of the creation of a global, dispersed network, addressing some memos to "Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network". Licklider's vision of a universal network had a strong influence on his successors at the IPTO, and supplied the original intellectual drive that led to the fruition of the ARPANET only seven years later.
J.C.R Licklider's ideas had a significant effect on the development of computer technology and the evolution of today's Internet Providers. He had a vision of man computer symbiosis whereby human reason could be augmented.