https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearne...

The degree of information organization in this book stunned me. John Markoff did a remarkable job of weaving a massive number of story lines (sequential and not, connected and not) -- all a part of the primordial soup that gave rise to the PC. The detail and complexity of people and roles, if mapped, would resemble all the tributaries that pour into the Missouri River. I'll admit that after 2/3 of the book, I lost track of who was who, but what was more important to me was how the many different computing cultures were steeped in the culture and counterculture in the Stanford area, particularly from the late '50s through the '60s and '70s. I was there, part of the political counterculture. I had no idea!

One of the things I found particularly interesting was that the groundwork had been laid for the PC over a couple of decades, and those doing the work were connected through their employment, Universities, and/or interests. Yet few of these brilliant innovators saw the potential or took seriously the appeal of small, personal computers. Sadly, their work and their decades-old projects fizzled out. In one of the more startling statements in his book, Markoff writes: "Even with a strong intellectual grasp of the consequences of Moore's Law, it has proved almost impossible for the members of any given generation of computing technology to accept the fact that it will be cannibalized by an upcoming generation."

So kudos to John Markoff for salvaging these stories and "curating" this very interesting socio-political tapestry before the personal histories are lost.

A great historical account of the birth of Silicon Valley, and a must-read for all Valley types. As with all such books, I have to wonder about the complete accuracy of some of the stories, but I think its main points are strong and interesting. I was lucky enough to hear the author speak (at a work event, no less!), and listening to him for an hour was enough to hook me on this book.

A fascinating history of the development of computing in America, with special focus on the Silicon Valley. This is not a book on the PC revolution, but of an era which paved way to the PC era. The book connects the sixties counterculture and the beginnings of technology.

The book is a chronological approach to the development of computing with specific focus on Doug Engelbart and his team at SRI, John McCarthy’s SAIL and Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog. Finally, there was programmer extraordinaire, Alan Kay.

The book takes the reader to the time when people were experimenting with LSD and the development of the anti-establishment movement, which had a huge impact on the creation of the Homebrew computer club. Steven Jobs, who was a member of the club, would later visit PARC and got and would be inspired to start Apple and become the first major PC vendor.

If you are interested in the history of the PC and how it relates to the 60s culture, this is a good book.

This is a great book, especially if you're into the early computer/PC history.

As other reviewers have pointed out before me, I'm not sure how much interconnectedness there really was between the counter-culture and the beginning of the PC era. Naturally, there was some - but it seems to me that the counter-culture was almost everywhere.

The reason I bought this book in the first place is because how this time in technology and computer history is described in Thomas Rid's 'Rise of the Machines' (on the history of the word "cyber") which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The link seemed clearer to me in Rid's book that it does in Markoff's.

None the less, the counter-culture and some of the people associated with it (and of course the ideals it represented) affected the early PC history quite a lot. That makes it even more ironic when you look at the billion dollar business it has since become.

Also, there are a lot of persons buzzing around in his history and unless you take notes, you are going to lose track of who is who. I certainly did, and Markoff could easily have done a better job at helping us out. Maybe a list of persons at the beginning or end of the book.

And probably the most noteworthy counter-culture(-inspired) person to have ever walked the IT/technology business, Steve Jobs, is barely mentioned in the book. No doubt that this is because the book is from 2005 and Jobs only really (like, really-really) rose to fame at the launch of the iPhone in 2007 which changed the business.

But then again, in his first iPhone presentation, Jobs quoted Alan Kay who is mentioned in described in Markoff's book.

All in all: I suggest you read the book but maybe structure your reading so you have a break now and then, because you are going to meet at lot of (interesting) people throughout your reading sessions :)

A fascinating examination of Silicon Valley's fledgling and more free-spirited days. Wonderful.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it....

The story of the genesis of the computer age seemed very similar to the rise of any religious movement, with its ideological future predicting, LSD smoking prophets, who believed in a future built on the power of their algorithms. They were true revolutionaries who went against the business models of their own corporations in order to bring about iconic changes which have turned us all into firm believers in the new religion of technology.

Long live the revolution.....

Decent general early computing history, but the 'sixties counterculture' is only occasionally connected- sometimes in important ways but frequently not.

There is some entertainment value in the occasional story of the movement conflicting with reality:

The commune idea hadn't worked out. He ran out of money within six months, it being more expensive to live on a commune in southern Oregon than he had thought it would be. Worst of all, it turned out there were no programming jobs anywhere close to his commune.

The environmentally destructive effects of large numbers of people getting close to nature are more apparent now, and perhaps others have realized it as a left-wing rationalization for urban flight.

The impact of the Vietnam War seems greater than the occasional acid trip (or hot tub use, also documented here). Men would go to work for defense contractors in order to avoid being drafted, but the weapons work was repulsive to those opposed to the war. Defense funded university computing labs sometimes became targets for protests.

But Duvall was extremely opposed to the war in Vietnam, which he came to see as a generational aberration. An entire American generation had been shaped by World War II; they got to be heroes, they got to be in command, and they won. It had been the high point of their lives. Vietnam, he thought, was the legacy of a group of Americans that was reaching its midlife crisis, and to grapple with it they were waging another war. There was no other reasonable explanation.

Fans of Steven Levy's "Hackers: Heros of the computer revolution" will
probably enjoy this - it covers 60s and 70s research at Stanford and PARC, esp. Doug Engelbart, who was an early proponent of personal computing at a time when the idea seemed insane.

The gimmick of the book is to tie all the subjects to the heady era of the late 60s and LSD use, hence the title.

"What the Dormouse Said" is a deep dive into the research institutions and companies that brought about the personal computing revolution. It also manages to tie in some of the countercultural elements prevalent in the 60s and attempts to show that those currents informed the creativity behind the research.

Personally, I enjoyed most of the first half of the book. In particular, the portions about LSD research, Stanford Research Institute, and Douglas Engelbart were very engaging. By the time the story reached Xerox PARC and Homebrew, I felt like the story had begun to unravel and it was rushing to finish itself. Still, I recommend this book if only to get a sense of how different computing could have turned out and to learn about some of the pioneers of the interfaces we use today.

This book gives a great history about the most important people and events leading up to the creation of the personal computing industry. I understand the culture behind computers much better thanks to this book. The narrative follows a variety of (often zany or unusual) characters and ties each character's impact into the central thread. I like the way the author ties together the different characters and shows where they interacted and how they affected each other.

The book was usually but not always an engaging read. My biggest complaint was that I found it difficult to keep track of all the different people who kept disappearing for large spaces of time and then reappearing, which made it difficult at times to understand the goings-on of the story. It is definitely worth reading again, if only to gain a more complete understanding of the details.

I found this book to have a slightly confusing structure. I agree with other reviews that a different structure with a greater focus on a handful of the key pioneers of the PC industry would have perhaps provided a better read. I had trouble keeping up with the dozens of different people mentioned in the book and their different connexions to each other. I could not bring myself to finish the book.

Nevetheless, you can tell the author did an immense amount of research and recounts all the facts and events with great detail. As such I would definity come back to this book if ever in need of very detailed information about certain individuals/events from that time. However, I was looking for a not-too-complicated introduction to the period and key pioneers of the PC industry, unfortunately I did not find what I was looking for..