[ih] Fwd: How Plato Influenced the Internet

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

so your amazon link book description summarily sez:

"
Imagine a time before everyone stared at a screen, before fonts, icons,
mice, and laser printers, before Apple and Microsoft… But tucked away in El
Segundo and Palo Alto, Xerox engineers were dreaming and secretly building
the modern personal computer. Who were these people who changed the world,
and why did corporate management just want to sell copiers and printers?The
author, Albert Cory,* was one of the engineers, charged with making that
dream a reality and unknowingly starting a revolution. Inventing the Future
is based on the true story of the Xerox Star, the computer that changed
everything.
"

cough, Cough, COUGH... BUT, uhm, er, wasn't it, well, The Xerox Alto -- the
predecessor to the Xerox Star that summarily and actually really changed
everything...¿¿¿

suggested alternative books on this take on history of personal computing
that changed everything:

#1.) Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, then Ignored, the First
Personal Computer
June 1, 1999
by Douglas K. Smith  (Author), Robert C. Alexander (Author)
https://amzn.to/3AxGYHB

"
Ask consumers and users what names they associate with the multibillion
dollar personal computer market, and they will answer IBM, Apple, Tandy, or
Lotus. The more knowledgable of them will add the likes of Microsoft,
Ashton-Tate, Compaq, and Borland. But no one will say Xerox. Fifteen years
after it invented personal computing, Xerox still means "copy." Fumbling
the Future tells how one of America's leading corporations invented the
technology for one of the fastest-growing products of recent times, then
miscalculated and mishandled the opportunity to fully exploit it. It is a
classic story of how innovation can fare within large corporate structures,
the real-life odyssey of what can happen to an idea as it travels from
inspiration to implementation. More than anything, Fumbling the Future is a
tale of human beings whose talents, hopes, fears, habits, and prejudices
determine the fate of our largest organizations and of our best ideas. In
an era in which technological creativity and economic change are so
critical to the competitiveness of the American economy, Fumbling the
Future is a parable for our times.
"


#2.) Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
April 5, 2000
by Michael A. Hiltzik  (Author)
https://amzn.to/3ypqbVt

"
In the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of
Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s
and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering
geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group
created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological
revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and
the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only
to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of
giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that
radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.

Based on extensive interviews with the scientists, engineers,
administrators, and executives who lived the story, this riveting chronicle
details PARC's humble beginnings through its triumph as a hothouse for
ideas, and shows why Xerox was never able to grasp, and ultimately exploit,
the cutting-edge innovations PARC delivered. Dealers of Lightning offers an
unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and the individuals that
propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of technohistoiy--and the corporate
machinations that almost prevented it from achieving greatness.
"


geoff

On Mon, Jul 5, 2021 at 2:06 PM Bob Purvy via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> I just listened to the episode
> <
> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-computing/id1472463802?i=1000511301793
> >
> about
> PLATO on The History of Computing podcast, mostly because I'm being
> interviewed for it tomorrow on my book
> <
> https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/1736298615/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
> >
>


-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True