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Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (/ˈlɪklaɪdər/; March 11, – June 26, ), known simply as J. C. R. or "Lick", was an American psychologist^[2] and computer scientist who is considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history.

He is particularly remembered for being one of the first to foresee modern-style interactive computing and its application to all manner of activities; and also as an Internet pioneer with an early vision of a worldwide computer network long before it was built. He did much to initiate this by funding research which led to much of it, including today's canonical graphical user interface, and the ARPANET, the direct predecessor to the Internet.

He has been called "computing's Johnny Appleseed", for planting the seeds of computing in the digital age; Robert Taylor, founder of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory and Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center, noted that "most of the significant advances in computer technology—including the work that my group did at Xerox PARC—were simply extrapolations of Lick's vision. They were not really new visions of their own. So he was really the father of it all".^[3]

This quotation from the full-length biography of him, The Dream Machine, gives some sense of his impact:

"More than a decade will pass before personal computers emerge from the garages of Silicon Valley, and a full thirty years before the Internet explosion of the s. The word computer still has an ominous tone, conjuring up the image of a huge, intimidating device hidden away in an over-lit, air-conditioned basement, relentlessly processing punch cards for some large institution: them.

"Yet, sitting in a nondescript office in McNamara's Pentagon, a quietcivilian is already planning the revolution that will change forever the way computers are perceived. Somehow, the occupant of that officehas seen a future in which computers will empower individuals, instead of forcing them into rigid conformity. He is almost alone in his conviction that computers can become not just super-fast calculating machines, but joyful machines: tools that will serve as new media of expression, inspirations to creativity, and gateways to a vast world of online information."^[3]

Biography[edit]

Licklider was born on March 11, , in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.^[4] He was the only child of Joseph Parron Licklider, a Baptist minister, and Margaret Robnett Licklider.^[5] Despite his father's religious background, he was not religious in later life.^[6]

He studied at Washington University in St. Louis, where he received a B.A. with a triple major in physics, mathematics, and psychology in ^[7][8] and an M.A. in psychology in He received a Ph.D. in psychoacoustics from the University of Rochester in Thereafter, he worked at Harvard University as a research fellow and lecturer in the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory from to

He became interested in information technology, and moved to MIT in as an associate professor, where he served on a committee that established MIT Lincoln Laboratory and a psychology program for engineering students. While at MIT, Licklider was involved in the SAGE project as head of the team concerned with human factors.^[9]

In , he received the Franklin V. Taylor Award from the Society of Engineering Psychologists. In , he was elected President of the Acoustical Society of America, and in he received the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service.^[10]

Licklider left MIT to become a vice president at Bolt Beranek and Newman in He learned about time-sharing from Christopher Strachey at a UNESCO-sponsored conference on Information Processing in Paris in ^[11][12] At BBN, he developed the BBN Time-Sharing System and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.^[13]

In October , Licklider was appointed head of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at ARPA, the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,^[14] an appointment he kept through July ^[15][16] In April , he sent a memo to his colleagues in outlining the early challenges presented in establishing a time-sharing network of computers with the software of that time.^[17] Ultimately, his vision led to ARPANet, the precursor of today's Internet.^[18]

After serving as manager of information sciences, systems and applications at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York from to , Licklider rejoined MIT as a professor of electrical engineering in During this period, he concurrently served as director of Project MAC until ^[19] Project MAC had produced the first computer time-sharing system, CTSS, and one of the first online setups with the development of Multics (work on which commenced in ). Multics provided inspiration for some elements of the Unixoperating system developed at Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in ^[20]

Following a second stint as IPTO director (–), his MIT faculty line was transferred to the Institute's Laboratory for Computer Science, where he was based for the remainder of his career. He was a founder member of Infocom in , known for their interactive fiction computer games.^[21] He retired and became professor emeritus in He died in in Arlington, Massachusetts;^[10] his cremated remains are interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Work[edit]

Psychoacoustics[edit]

In the psychoacoustics field, Licklider is most remembered for his "Duplex Theory of Pitch Perception", presented in a paper^[22] that has been cited hundreds of times,^[23] was reprinted in a book,^[24] and formed the basis for modern models of pitch perception.^[25] He was also the first to report binaural unmasking of speech.^[26]

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment[edit]

A SAGE operator's terminal

While at MIT in the s, Licklider worked on Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), a Cold War project to create a computer-aided air defense system. The SAGE system included computers that collected and presented data to a human operator, who then chose the appropriate response. Licklider worked as a human factors expert, which helped convince him of the great potential for human/computer interfaces.^[27]

Information technology[edit]

Licklider became interested in information technology early in his career. His ideas foretold of graphical computing, point-and-click interfaces, digital libraries, e-commerce, online banking, and software that would exist on a network and migrate wherever it was needed. Much like Vannevar Bush's, Licklider's contribution to the development of the Internet consists of ideas, not inventions. He foresaw the need for networked computers with easy user interfaces.

Licklider was instrumental in conceiving, funding and managing the research that led to modern personal computers and the Internet. In his seminal paper on "Man-Computer Symbiosis"^[28] foreshadowed interactive computing, and he went on to fund early efforts in time-sharing and application development, most notably the work of Douglas Engelbart, who founded the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute and created the famous On-Line System where the computer mouse was invented.

He also did some seminal early work for the Council on Library Resources, imagining what libraries of the future might look like,^[29] which he had described as "thinking centers" in his paper.^[28]

Man–computer symbiosis[edit]

In "Man-Computer Symbiosis", Licklider in outlined the need for simpler interaction between computers and computer users.^[30] Licklider has been credited as an early pioneer of cybernetics and artificial intelligence (AI),^[31] but unlike many AI practitioners, Licklider never felt that men would be replaced by computer-based beings. As he wrote in that article: "Men will set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking".^[28] This approach, focusing on effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence, is sometimes called Intelligence amplification (IA). Peter Highnam, DARPA director in , focused on human-machine partnership as a long-term goal and guiding light ever since Licklider's publication.^[32]

Project MAC[edit]

During his time as director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) from to , he funded Project MAC at MIT. A large mainframe computer was designed to be shared by up to 30 simultaneous users, each sitting at a separate "typewriter terminal". He also funded similar projects at Stanford University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the AN/FSQ at System Development Corporation.

Global computer network[edit]

Licklider played a similar role in conceiving of and funding early networking research. He formulated the earliest ideas of a global computer network in August at BBN, in a series of memos discussing the "Intergalactic Computer Network" concept. These ideas contained almost everything that the Internet is today, including cloud computing.^[33]

While at IPTO, he convinced Ivan Sutherland, Bob Taylor, and Lawrence G. Roberts that an all-encompassing computer network was a very important concept. He met with Donald Davies in and inspired his interest in data communications.^[34][35]

In Licklider submitted the paper "Televistas: Looking ahead through side windows" to the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television.^[36] This paper describes a radical departure from the "broadcast" model of television. Instead, Licklider advocates a two-way communications network. The Carnegie Commission led to the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Although the Commission's report explains that "Dr.&#;Licklider's paper was completed after the Commission had formulated its own conclusions," President Johnson said at the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act of , "So I think we must consider new ways to build a great network for knowledge—not just a broadcast system, but one that employs every means of sending and of storing information that the individual can use".^[37]

His paper The Computer as a Communication Device illustrates his vision of network applications and predicts the use of computer networks to support communities of common interest and collaboration without regard to location.^[38]

The Licklider Transmission Protocol is named after him.

Publications[edit]

Licklider wrote numerous articles and lectures, and one book:

Articles, a selection:

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• M. Mitchell Waldrop () The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing PersonalISBN&#; – An extensive and very thoroughly researched biography of J.C.R. Licklider.
• Katie Hafner & Matthew Lyon () Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet, Simon & Schuster. ISBN&#; – Describes the creation of the ARPANET.
• Augmenting Human Intellect paper, Douglas Engelbart, October
• Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, Libraries of the Future. Cambridge, MA,
• Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing[1] video documentary, Licklider explains online resource sharing, about 10 minutes into the documentary, and reappears throughout.
• From World Brain to the World Wide Web, Lecture by Martin Campbell-Kelly at Gresham College, 9 November
• Seeding Networks: the Federal Role, Larry Press, Communications of the ACM, pp.&#;11–18, Vol , No 10, October, A survey of US government-funded research and development preceding and including the National Science Foundation backbone and international connections programs.
• Before the Altair – The History of Personal Computing, Larry Press, Communications of the ACM, September, , Vol 36, No 9, pp 27– A survey of research and development leading to the personal computer including Licklider's contributions.

External links[edit]

• J. C. R. Licklider at Find a Grave
• J.&#;C.&#;R. Licklider And The Universal Network — Living Internet
• Oral history interview with J.&#;C.&#;R. Licklider at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Licklider, the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's (ARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), discusses his work at Lincoln Laboratory and IPTO. Topics include: personnel recruitment; the interrelations between the various Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratories; Licklider's relationship with Bolt, Beranek, and Newman; the work of ARPA director Jack Ruina; IPTO's influence of computer science research in the areas of interactive computing and timesharing; the ARPA contracting process; the work of Ivan Sutherland.
• Oral history interview with Robert E. Kahn at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kahn discusses the work of various DARPA and IPTO personnel including J.&#;C.&#;R. Licklider.
• Glenn Fowler (3 July ). "Joseph C.R. Licklider Dies at 75 – Foresaw New Uses for Computers". New York Times. Retrieved 28 June