---
authors: M. Mitchell Waldrop
isbn: "9781732265110"
pages: "512"
rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
date_started: 2020-04-15
date_finished: 2020-05-24
locations: San Francisco
date: 2020-05-24
---

# The Dream Machine

Incredible book.

Basically tells the whole history of computing starting from pre-WWII years, through John von Neumann and Alan Turning years, invention of LISP, Arpanet, Xerox PARC, TCP/IP, Unix and interactive computing and finally internet.

It just connects all the great people together: Norbert Wiener, von Neumann, Noam Chomsky, JFK, Alan Kay, Vint Cerf, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Steve Jobs, Al Gore. And all connected via work of J. C. R. Licklider.