Summary of John Markoff's What the Dormouse Said

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 In 1960, two young California engineers boarded a plane to attend an electronics technical meeting in Philadelphia. The International Circuits Conference had recently been focused on radio, but that was changing as electronic systems began to find their way into consumer, business, and military equipment.

#2 Crane was hired to work on a new computer being built by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was witness to one of the world's first artificial light shows when he worked on the Johniac, a computer that used magnetic-core memory.

#3 In 1960, Douglas Engelbart was working with SRI on a magnetic shift register, one of the key components of a computer. He had introduced the idea of an all-magnetic computer at an industry technical conference the previous year. He was not an easy person to control, but he was a valuable member of the team.

#4 Engelbart was a navy radar technician who was stationed in the Philippines after World War II. He was bored and anxious, and spent his time watching the towering tropical cloud formations. He began to consider how the fields of science and engineering could be applied to the deluge of data threatening to overwhelm researchers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669399216

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Insights on John Markoff's What the Dormouse Said

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In 1960, two young California engineers boarded a plane to attend an electronics technical meeting in Philadelphia. The International Circuits Conference had recently been focused on radio, but that was changing as electronic systems began to find their way into consumer, business, and military equipment.

#2

Crane was hired to work on a new computer being built by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was witness to one of the world's first artificial light shows when he worked on the Johniac, a computer that used magnetic-core memory.

#3

In 1960, Douglas Engelbart was working with SRI on a magnetic shift register, one of the key components of a computer. He had introduced the idea of an all-magnetic computer at an industry technical conference the previous year. He was not an easy person to control, but he was a valuable member of the team.

#4

Engelbart was a navy radar technician who was stationed in the Philippines after World War II. He was bored and anxious, and spent his time watching the towering tropical cloud formations. He began to consider how the fields of science and engineering could be applied to the deluge of data threatening to overwhelm researchers.

#5

When Engelbart returned to the United States after a year in the navy, he went to Corvallis, Oregon, to finish the studies he had begun before joining the navy, obtaining his degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in 1948. He was recruited to work at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, where he served as an electrical engineer in the electrical section.

#6

Engelbart was preparing to go to work at HP when he had a vision of how people could cope with the challenges of complexity and urgency that faced all human endeavors. He decided that if he could create something to improve the human capability to deal with those challenges, he would have accomplished something fundamental.

#7

Engelbart's company, Digital Techniques, did not last long. His investors hired Stanford Research Institute to prepare a report on the technology, and it came back pessimistic. Engelbart realized he would have to find a research laboratory where he could sell his vision.

#8

The modern