First of all, thank you so much Lick and Louise.
J.C.R. Licklider outlined it all in his 1960 paper about man and computer symbiosis.
He was a psychologist and computer scientist who understood so much of life. He understood that brain and bodies are one and that to make good use of computers, the interface should be physical. He funded Doug’s efforts about that (Doug invented the mouse), understanding that the wrist is an absolutely fabulous human tool.
Born during WWI, having a career during WWII, Vietnam, the Cold War, the goal of that research about information theory and technology was fueled by the conviction that the world needed to collaborate, that people needed to understand each other. And that computers, networks and “libraries on-line” could be great tools to help with that. He was right.
He passed away in June 1990.
Today, Lick would slap the shit out of your pocket computer that you are glued to while walking around.
Today, Lick would probably tear up using ChatGPT, the thing that he could potentially see happen theoretically, which is a reality accessible to everyone for the past few months.
Today, Lick would have been going hard at congress and in politics since the late 90s to pass a UBI bill, understanding very clearly that automation is creating enormous amounts of value not adequately shared, and that people are suffering a lot because of that.
Today, Lick would be appalled at social media’s tactics and psychological “casino” tricks. I think he would go hard to have them banned or would have had rung the bell about them in 2010 in a Wired interview.
Today, Lick would be extremely skeptical of VR, understanding that mind and bodies can’t really be separated at all.
Today, Lick would be sad about the state of video games (he was a founder of Infocom, pioneers of interactive text adventures). He would be ecstatic about something like Unreal, but he would be depressed at the constant stream of marines and endless power fantasies.
Today, Lick would probably advocate for households to have 3D printers to print parts for whatever appliance’s handle eventually breaks. He would work with printers manufacturers and say, Ikea to make sure that customers could do those things agreeably.
Thank you, Mitch for the wonderful narration. And again, thank you Lick for the prescient and vision that allows me to type and send some text and a picture to the ether, right now. (ctrl+shift+P as Publish)