🧠Man-Computer Symbiosis →
January 24, 2020 • #J.C.R. Licklider’s seminal 1960 paper on what would eventually become the personal computer.
Man-computer symbiosis is a subclass of man-machine systems. There are many man-machine systems. At present, however, there are no man-computer symbioses. The purposes of this paper are to present the concept and, hopefully, to foster the development of man-computer symbiosis by analyzing some problems of interaction between men and computing machines, calling attention to applicable principles of man-machine engineering, and pointing out a few questions to which research answers are needed. The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today.
- The Rise and Fall of the R&D Lab — Ben Southwood on what happened with the corporate research centers of the mid-20th century.
- Roots of Progress on Agriculture — Roots of Progress digs into the history of agriculture, with an open process.
- On Building Systems That Will Fail — Fernando Corbato's 1990 talk about system complexity and the necessity for building in resilience.