What a great title for a book about personal computers. I’m envious.<\/p>\n
Computerworld<\/em>‘s April 25 issue reports on John Markoff’s new book, What the Dormouse Said…. How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry<\/em><\/a>. Kathleen Melymuka’s interview<\/a> is brief, but Markoff’s answers are fascinating, and there’s an excerpt from the book<\/a> following the interview. It’s a bold thesis, even sensational in some of its ramifications. I imagine the book will inspire fear and loathing in a good many readers (and perhaps keen interest in a good many others). One thing, though, is clear (yet once more): computers are indeed a new medium, one intimately devoted to the augmentation of the human intellect–and, by extension, if we have the hearts and imaginations and strength for it, the augmentation of human community. That’s<\/em> a legacy no one should be reluctant to own.<\/p>\n I’ll read the book as soon as term is done. It’ll be interesting to see if the book lives up to the promise of the interview and the excerpt. Lots of tabloid-fodder possibilities; I hope Markoff avoids them, and avoids demagoguery too.<\/p>\n *Actually, the Dormouse never said “feed your head.” That was Grace Slick’s rewriting–remix?–of Lewis Carroll’s account of the Mad Hatter’s and March Hare’s tea party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What a great title for a book about personal computers. I’m envious. Computerworld‘s April 25 issue reports on John Markoff’s new book, What the Dormouse Said…. How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. Kathleen Melymuka’s interview is brief, … Continue reading