by
Fred Turner
103
Taking the Whole Earth Digital
0
terms
2
notes
111
In the early 1970s, the Catalog came to model the potential integration of New Communalist ideals and information technology for researchers at Xerox PARC and for the leaders of the region’s emerging computer hobbyist culture. Founded in 1970 primarily to serve as a research laboratory for a recently acquired computer subsidiary, Xerox PARC substantially extended the trajectory of human-computer integration outlined by Bush and Licklider and pursued by Engelbart’s ARC group. Within ten years, researchers there had designed a computer for individual use (the Alto), an internal network with which to link these computers together (the first Ethernet), a graphical user interface, and the laser printer, among many other innovations. For the most part, these innovations grew out of a technical tradition associated with the ARPA community and with Engelbart’s ARC group. One of the very first hires at Xerox PARC was Robert Taylor, who had led ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office since 1966. Taylor in turn recruited Bill English and a dozen other members of Engelbart’s ARC group, hoping that they would bring their understanding of the NLS with them.18 Along with members of the ARC team, Taylor recruited a number of talented young programmers and engineers whom he had met in a series of graduate student symposia sponsored by ARPA. One of the most prominent of these was Alan Kay. In 1969 Kay’s PhD dissertation at the University of Utah had described an interactive desktop computer; as early as 1967, Kay had proposed a portable variation on that computer that he called the Dynabook. Kay’s Dynabook would soon provide a guiding vision for Xerox PARC’s pursuit of its own individualized computer, the Alto.
In the early 1970s, the Catalog came to model the potential integration of New Communalist ideals and information technology for researchers at Xerox PARC and for the leaders of the region’s emerging computer hobbyist culture. Founded in 1970 primarily to serve as a research laboratory for a recently acquired computer subsidiary, Xerox PARC substantially extended the trajectory of human-computer integration outlined by Bush and Licklider and pursued by Engelbart’s ARC group. Within ten years, researchers there had designed a computer for individual use (the Alto), an internal network with which to link these computers together (the first Ethernet), a graphical user interface, and the laser printer, among many other innovations. For the most part, these innovations grew out of a technical tradition associated with the ARPA community and with Engelbart’s ARC group. One of the very first hires at Xerox PARC was Robert Taylor, who had led ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office since 1966. Taylor in turn recruited Bill English and a dozen other members of Engelbart’s ARC group, hoping that they would bring their understanding of the NLS with them.18 Along with members of the ARC team, Taylor recruited a number of talented young programmers and engineers whom he had met in a series of graduate student symposia sponsored by ARPA. One of the most prominent of these was Alan Kay. In 1969 Kay’s PhD dissertation at the University of Utah had described an interactive desktop computer; as early as 1967, Kay had proposed a portable variation on that computer that he called the Dynabook. Kay’s Dynabook would soon provide a guiding vision for Xerox PARC’s pursuit of its own individualized computer, the Alto.
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Levy argued that although they had not met, members of all three generations shared a single set of six values, a “hacker ethic”:
Access to computers — and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works — should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative! . . .
All information should be free. . . .
Mistrust Authority —Promote Decentralization. . . .
Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. . . .
You can create art and beauty on a computer. . . .
Computers can change your life for the better.
Levy argued that although they had not met, members of all three generations shared a single set of six values, a “hacker ethic”:
Access to computers — and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works — should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative! . . .
All information should be free. . . .
Mistrust Authority —Promote Decentralization. . . .
Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. . . .
You can create art and beauty on a computer. . . .
Computers can change your life for the better.