Man Computer Symbiosis - J.C.R. Licklider (http://worrydream.com/refs/Licklider%20-%20Man-Computer%20Symbiosis.pdf)
In our first series of episodes going through some papers (https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/055) we discuss man-computer symbiosis.
If I were to put together a list of the most influential papers in computer science this would definitely make the list. The paper is really the first paper that imagines personal computing. While it may not have predicting everyone owning a computer. It definitely imagined a future that looks quite similar to the one we have today.
I think the other striking thing about this paper is just how practically minded it was. It says a large vision, but also talks about a way to achieve it. In some ways it feels mundane today, but I think this mundanity is actually its virtue. If you are looking for a paper to learn from for proposing your own idea in the future of coding, this is a great paper to consider.
Definitely worth a read
I went to visit some Le Corbusier houses in Stuttgart and they felt "mundane", then I realized it's because the future they presented in the 1920s became reality and to us now it's just "a house". Weird way for successful predictions to not stand out đ
Regarding presentation style, I find old papers' presentation style much more accessible than new ones đ
I loved the episode. Thank you and I look forward to more! Also thanks for mentioning the slack. I don't remember how I found your podcast, but I was unaware of the slack.
On his comment about computers being too fast and expensive for a computer to be used by just one person, I suspect he was claiming that computers are so fast that one person would not fully utilize the computing power. This means much of it would be wasted without timesharing, which would be bad because of how expensive they are. Now, of course, they are cheap enough that we are okay with most computers not being fully utilized most of the time.