Author: DOuG pRATt

Hackers On The Net – 4

One popular new feature on the Net is [the] Associated Press service. From anywhere on the Net you can log in and get the news that’s coming live over the wire or ask for all the items on a particular subject that have come in during the last 24 hours. Plus a fortune cookie. Project that to household terminals, and so much for newspapers (in present form).

Stewart Brand
Rolling Stone
December 7, 1972

In 1972 a truly astounding educational film was made, with the thoroughly boring title, “Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing.” It’s a bunch of academics and engineers in Boston explaining how they were changing the world forever.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/ComputerNetworks.flv 440 330]If you’re not into technology, probably only the last few minutes of this 25-minute film will be of interest. The original format of this video prevents me from extracting excerpts, but I can offer you a few minutes of audio. Listen to this, and keep in mind that it’s from 1972. The voice at the start and the end is J.C.R. Licklider, who died in 1990.