[ih] Fwd: How Plato Influenced the Internet

[Steve Crocker]

When I was working on the Arpanet in the 1968-71 time frame and at ARPA in
the 1971-74 time frame, I visited Bitzer at U of Illinois and also visited
the Corning factory in Toledo where the plasma panels were manufactured.
In those days there was a big hunger for displays but nothing was quite
viable.  We had an IMLAC in the Arpa office but didn't get much use out of
it.

The plasma panel was definitely intriguing, and the Plato system was
noteworthy.  I don't recall where Bitzer got his financial support, but I
don't believe it came from ARPA.  That put the Plato project outside of the
ARPA community, even though we were fully aware of the technology.  At
Illinois there was a bit of rivalry between Dan Slotnick and his Illiac IV
project and Bitzer with his Plato project.  I couldn't tell whether the
rivalry was good natured or toxic, and I didn't spend much time worrying
about it.

It would be quite a few years before we could buy displays that were truly
usable.  The Grid laptop was noteworthy but a bit expensive.  Apollo and
Sun came out with workstations and changed the world.  And then along came
Apple.  Lisp machines, from Lisp Machines Inc and also from Symbolics, were
very high end products.  Similarly, the products from Silicon Graphics and
from Evans and Sutherland were also at the high end.

Steve

On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 5:22 PM Stephen Casner via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Jun 2021, Stephen Casner via Internet-history wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 10 Jun 2021, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> >
> > > I've had a similar experience as John.  In my time at MIT and BBN
> through the
> > > 60s/70s, I don't recall ever hearing anything about Plato, so it's not
> likely
> > > it had much influence in our work on ARPANET/Internet.
> > >
> > > IIRC, playing around with all sorts of graphics-capable terminals was
> popular
> > > back then - in the late 60s onward.   E.g., I had a student-job to
> create a
> > > graphical mechanical engineering simulation, and help the ME students
> do their
> > > designs, all using CTSS and an "ARDS" (Advanced Remote Display
> Station).  In
> > > another group at MIT, we had an Evans&Sutherland display, circa early
> 70s.
> > > People at another lab were playing with systems that used light pens.
> In the
> > > later 70s, at BBN, we had a 3D display that could show wire-frame
> models of
> > > stuff, and let you rotate and manipulate it.
> > >
> > > AFAIK, few if any of these had much obvious influence outside their own
> > > communities.   Although they all had interesting technology, there
> were too
> > > few of them available for use as everyday terminals to your favorite
> computer
> > > system.   So they were good for demos, but not for mainstream work.
> >
> > That Evans & Sutherland display may be the same one that Danny Cohen
> > used for the flight simulator that incorporated ARPAnet communication
> > between Harvard and BBN.  This was definitely a case where displays
> > and ARPAnet were both important, but it falls into your category of
> > demo not mainstream.  See the attached two slides from a Google Tech
> > Talk that Danny gave in 2010.
>
> Oops, the internet-history list does not allow the attachment.
>
> See: http://casners.us/flight-sim.pdf
>
>                                                         -- Steve
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