What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal ComputerIndustry by John Markoff

Oct 20, 2011 David Spencer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is amazing, it details the rise of personal computers and the internet out of psychedelic drugs and counterculture in a way that actually sort of depresses you when you see the couple of forks in the road at which, under slightly less...personality-driven decision-making, we'll call it, the personal computing industry could have been the lifesaver upon which the counterculture could have grasped as it began to drown in military-industrial command economic tyranny's bloodocean, along wi...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Brian Vaughan rated it 3 of 5 stars

The San Francisco Bay Area has a long history as a center for the political left and the counterculture. It is also an important center for the development of computers and the Internet. The heyday of the counterculture, the late sixties and early seventies, was a critical moment in the development of computer technology. How did the wave of popular social transformation influence the development of computing, itself a source of further significant social and political transformation?

Unfortunate...more The San Francisco Bay Area has a long history as a center for the political left and the counterculture. It is also an important center for the development of computers and the Internet. The heyday of the counterculture, the late sixties and early seventies, was a critical moment in the development of computer technology. How did the wave of popular social transformation influence the development of computing, itself a source of further significant social and political transformation?

Unfortunately, Markoff doesn't answer this question. He doesn't even ask it clearly.

In the first few pages of "What the Dormouse Said," he makes it clear that, as early as the late 1940s, some few researchers imagined the "personal computer," in contrast to the tightly controlled bureaucratic tools known at the time, and those few researchers went on to spend decades developing that concept. This is interesting.

However, the next 250 pages of the book consist of hundreds of irrelevant and tedious biographical snapshots, explaining how yet another computer scientist was a gifted child, happened to choose to go to grad school at Stanford, and met the last computer scientist described a few pages earlier. Somewhere in this, the person described has some involvement with the counterculture or the New Left, usually a very superficial involvement. How that influenced the person's views of computing is never discussed. Causation is not correlation. Simply telling us that many computing pioneers took LSD and protested the Vietnam War doesn't tell us much, if anything, about how their views of the possibilities of computing were transformed.

He does make it clear that there were two critical loci: the Augment lab at Stanford, where Doug Engelbart's vision of personal computing laid the groundwork that was developed later, and more famously, at Xerox's PARC, where the Alto computer established the conventions familiar today in graphical user interfaces; and the People's Computer Company, in which enthusiasts made a conscious effort to unite the ideals of the counterculture and the New Left with the developments in computer technology. Sadly, Markoff spends only a few pages on the PCC, which deserved much more in-depth consideration.

In general, Markoff's treatment of the ideas of the counterculture, the New Left, and of computing, are superficial.

I gave this book three stars, as despite all these shortcomings, I believe the book is worth reading, as the information is there, despite Markoff's failure to connect the dots and construct a coherent historical narrative.(less)

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Mar 21, 2013 Alistair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an interesting and thought provoking book that filled in a few details that I hadn't known before. A worthwhile, if slightly exasperating read.

On the other hand, the writing is chaotic, disorganized and repetitive. The author's thesis that LSD is linked to most of the interesting people is more like noting who wears neckties. (Not really relevant?) People are identified and its noted if they've done LSD... nothing about whether that had positive or negative effects on their lives/work/c...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, science

The author wrote this in the same way in which I often write my essays: I start with a preconceived conclusion and generally try to shoehorn the rest of my essay into it, despite reality differing a little from what I though.

The rise of computers was undoubtedly parallel with the rise of the drug culture and the New Left, and many of the first computer scientists were active participants in these movements; however, it seems that by the author's sporadic intermingling of these separate events,

...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Daniel Lovins rated it 3 of 5 stars

Tries to link invention to personal computer with LSD subculture. Result is sort of two books in one, with occasional overlap, rather than a single narrative thread. In the preface, Markoff reviews two popular accounts of the origin of the PC: the Homebrew Computer Club in San Francisco, beginning in 1975, with Steve Jobs, Stephen Wozniak, et al. And Xerox PARC in the early 1970s, which Jobs visited in 1979 and where he assimilated the idea of a graphic user interface (p. ix). "Both stories are...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Natali rated it 4 of 5 stars

First the good: A very inspirational read for anyone who loves computers and history. Markoff tells the the underground tale of how personal computers evolved out of a (sometimes illicit) counterculture in the 1960s in the San Francisco Bay Area. The story made me homesick for the independent, creative, and brilliant spirit that permeates the Bay Area. I am proud to be from there.

Now a few drawbacks: The book is a little hard to follow because there were so many players. I really wanted to know...more

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$Tommy /|\$

Dec 10, 2010 Tommy /|\ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having first read "Fire in the Valley", I was a bit more in line with the various individuals that comprise this particular history. That said, Markoff provides a lot more information on the "why" to the story of the personal computer than "Fire in the Valley" did. Its the perfect follow-on to the academic aspect from "Fire". The storyline and characters come and go throughout the book -- and while it can be a bit confusing, the final chapter actually rolls a lot of the material into place. Seve...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Liam rated it 5 of 5 stars

"In the late 1950s, however, McCarthy's notion was prescient and and similar to Doug Engelbart's Augmentation machine. However, they re,aomed fundamentally different concepts. At the deepest level, the question was whether humans would remain in the loop. Brilliant machines that could both mimic and surpass human capabilities were not what Engelbart foresaw, and although the two camps didn't directly quarrel they did pursue opposite agendas, representing humanist and mechanist ideas about the fu...more

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Apr 02, 2013 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Early West-coast computer nerdery! Robots roaming the streets of Palo Alto! Sex and drugs! What’s not to like? When I first got access to the Internet back in the early 90s, I spent hours reading through resources like the Jargon File which told the unofficial (and usually funny and/or scandalous) stories of the early computer era. This is like that, only a little better researched. It’s a little difficult to follow at times, since it is trying to simultaneously follow a bunch of different kinds...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

Psychedelics and computer history, two of my favorite topics. This book would have been improved if I'd had the patience to chart a timeline while I was writing it, I think, because as other reviewers have stated, it's very difficult to keep track of the main characters. The structure isn't organized strictly by time (it jumps back and forth between years, particularly towards the end) or by subject (making it difficult to remember who a particular player is, when their only previous appearance...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Jon Merkley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Strictly as a historical piece, I really loved this one. I'm a technology freak and I love computers. To me, this book chronologically conveyed exactly what the title says; the counterculture and how it played a role in computing as we all know it today. This book really starts in the 50s and covers SAIL, MIT, and other places instrumental in early digital (and analog) computing history. More important than the places talked about are the people, though. I learned more about the people involved...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Brett Provance rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fun book. I have read it a few times, and have now incorporated it into my California History course, as it complements material on the Bay Area's cultural history, and it especially offers a solid knowledge base concerning the establishment and development of the industries of Silicon Valley. Indeed, one of the more groundbreaking insights that I gained when reading this work is the undeniable and significant involvement of government-financed projects in developing the foundational c...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Jacob / Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of technology, and how society shapes and is shaped by technology. It's hard to imagine in this era when computers are everywhere -- laptops, phones, video games -- and where people have personal access to their computers that it used to be that computers were something to be afraid of, these cold-war-era behemoths that only large corporations or governments possessed and which took teams of people to maintain. This book gives a gl...more I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of technology, and how society shapes and is shaped by technology. It's hard to imagine in this era when computers are everywhere -- laptops, phones, video games -- and where people have personal access to their computers that it used to be that computers were something to be afraid of, these cold-war-era behemoths that only large corporations or governments possessed and which took teams of people to maintain. This book gives a glimpse into how society went from fearing computers to seeing them as tools for personal productivity.

A lot of people start the story of the personal computer at Xerox PARC. But this book is about the people and context which came before, that influenced the developments at Xerox. There's also the claim (echoed in a number of places, including Stewart Brand's essay "We owe it all to the hippies") that the personal computer was brought to the masses, not by commercial companies, not by the government, but by hippies and activists (and hobbyists). People who saw the computer as a tool, to give power to the individual, decentralized. [I can't help but see this in one of the pervasive apps for early personal computers, Print Shop -- printing posters! How hippie and populist!]

Having finished this book, I feel like I need to read it again. The book is so chock full of anecdotes, that there's too much to process. At first, there were too many people and places to keep straight. After a while, the story starts to settle down on a few main people. But if there is one down side to this book, it's that there's just too much info, and it doesn't seem coherently organized. The book also lacks any summarizing or conclusions from the author. If there are any big ideas to be taken away, they're not explicitly expressed by the author. I would have liked some more of that -- I don't have to agree with what the author thinks, but I'm sure that there are parallels and contrasts and ideas that the author could have pointed out, and I would have thought, "Oh, I hadn't noticed that! Thanks for bringing that up." The book is really just a collection of stories. But despite that, it's still amazing.

One of the main story lines is about Douglas Engelbart, whose work led to the infamous "mother of all demos" (where, among other things, the computer mouse was first publicly demonstrated). Engelbart is introduced as someone who learned about "scale" while working on modeling aerodynamics of airplanes -- where different properties scale differently as you shrink the plane (surface area vs volume, etc). Engelbart's insight was to apply "scale" to thinking about other things: how would uses of computers change as they become smaller? To try to communicate this idea to people, he would carry around a pencil attached to a brick and ask, what if pencils weighed a pound, how would we use then? And if we could make pencils lighter (and he removes the brick), what new uses does that open up? And how does that affect what we can do, and how we can communicate and interact with other people? Engelbart wasn't interested in computers, he was interested in humans, their intellect and their interaction. The computer was just a tool for improving them. And you could see this in the way that Engelbart ran his research group: he experimented with new ways to hold meetings, seeing meetings as just another tool for the human brain, another thing to be tweaked and experimented with until we discovered new ways for people to work together. (A lot of things he tried were flops, but apparently he also invented a number of things that we take for granted in meetings today, like brainstorming.) Anyway, this concept of thinking about "scale" in other areas is a brilliant idea, that I can keep in mind when I'm thinking about technology and society. It's just one of several in the book, which made it a throught-provoking read.

I originally looked into this book because I heard that it was mentioned in This Is Your Country on Drugs, so I thought that this might be a "druggie book", but actually there's very little about drugs in here -- though LSD is mentioned a fair amount early on, including in terms of scientific experiments at human augmentation (which is what Engelbart was on about). And counterculture is certainly important to the story, in terms of decentralization and populism and the fact that the people in the story are using computers in their activist groups, etc, but really, I don't see this as a counter-culture book either. I think the people who would most enjoy this book are techies, specifically those interested in the history of technology, and maybe also media types, who are interested in the interaction between society and technology and technology as a medium.(less)

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Nov 12, 2007 tamarack rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: geek-curious

i read this book in the kitchen nook over my midday meal on non-work days. it's a pretty rad documentary of the birth of computer technology in hippie-radical berkeley. i kind of felt just-along-for-the-ride on this book since i can't begin to keep all the names and profiles straight as markoff moves through decades. there's no particular protagonist, and it's not a biography unless it's a biography of The Computer. regardless, i do enjoy the ride.
it's somehow encouraging to read of the altruist...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Kevin O'Brien rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, technology

This was just a fun break from serious reading, but I quite enjoyed it. Before Steve Jobs, before Bill Gates, there were the real pioneers who gave us personal computers, people like Doug Engelbart, who probably did more than either of the above. This is the story of those unsung folks. And of course all of this took place in the Bay area around San Francisco just as the anti-war and hippie movements were active. It was not an accident that these things happened in the same place at the same tim...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Brian rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history-post-ww2-to-reagan

What the Dormouse Said is an attempt to try and tell how the personal computer developed out of the 1960's counterculture. Sadly the author becomes so fixated on one person that he misses his chance to tell the great story. No author has yet to be able to capture the development of the personal computer but this book does have most of the salient elements. From the development of the ARPA net to the IBM 650 we can see the computer industry cloacae. The need for the killer app or the internet is...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Donald Guy rated it 4 of 5 stars

A pretty decent book. Overall I would say it is an excellent foil to the first half of Stephen Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. This book kind of tells the early west coast story that parallels the early MIT chapters of Hackers and gives a nice run up to the more in-depth discussion of Homebrew forward in Hackers. There are figures given a lot of attention here brushed over in Hackers and vis-versa. This book is sadly not quite as well structured, opting to try to give more dep...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Frankie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A great historical account of the birth of Silicon Valley, and a must-read for all Valley types. As with all such books, I have to wonder about the complete accuracy of some of the stories, but I think its main points are strong and interesting. I was lucky enough to hear the author speak (at a work event, no less!), and listening to him for an hour was enough to hook me on this book.

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Aug 07, 2012 Andrea rated it 2 of 5 stars

i found myself wanting to finish this book even though for the most part it was boring and after awhile all the names got jumbled and I didn't know who was who. The most interesting aspect of the book was reading the history of the Personal Computer and how that really intertwined with the counterculture of the 1960s in California. Went on a few rabbit trails while reading this book, including researching about LSD , Acid Tests, and The Merry Pranksters.

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May 13, 2010 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fans of Steven Levy's "Hackers: Heros of the computer revolution" will
probably enjoy this - it covers 60s and 70s research at Stanford and PARC, esp. Doug Engelbart, who was an early proponent of personal computing at a time when the idea seemed insane.

The gimmick of the book is to tie all the subjects to the heady era of the late 60s and LSD use, hence the title.

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Oct 07, 2011 Michael Dickens rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book gives a great history about the most important people and events leading up to the creation of the personal computing industry. I understand the culture behind computers much better thanks to this book. The narrative follows a variety of (often zany or unusual) characters and ties each character's impact into the central thread. I like the way the author ties together the different characters and shows where they interacted and how they affected each other.

The book was usually but not...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

Most histories of the personal computer industry focus on technology or business. John Markoff’s landmark book is about the culture and consciousness behind the first PCs—the culture being counter– and the consciousness expanded, sometimes chemically. It’s a brilliant evocation of Stanford, California, in the 1960s and ’70s, where a group of visionaries set out to turn computers into a means for freeing minds and information. In these pages one encounters Ken Kesey and the phone hacker Cap’n Cru...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am finding this is making a great introduction to reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. I never knew before of the radical activism of the genesis of personal computing: Computer power for the people! I also never knew that Bill Gates has been getting nicked by software piract since personal computers where solely in the domain of hobbyists. This books sheds light on the such important visionaries and innovators previously unknown to me as interface dreamer Doug Engelbart, ardent...more

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Feb 11, 2010 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

It took me a while to get through this one...

The multitude of players and stories is somewhat difficult to follow, but overall the narration gives a decent impression of what the Stanford/NorCal scene was like, and who was involved, as computing technology was being developed.

A good bit of the history seems anecdotal, and the connections between counterculture and computer R&D seem strained. I didn't finish this book thinking that PC development was a direct result of any psychedelic experi...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nothing overly mind expanding, but very enjoyable. Great narrative of how these fascinating individuals were drawn to the San Fran area around the same time and how their pursuits - some only tangentially related to computers or electronics - wound up drastically changing the future.

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Sep 18, 2011 Samuel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: reread-later

I really wanted to like this book. I find the history of computers and the Internet to be a fascinating subject. However, this book is dense. Very dense. I'm going to have to shelve this and return to it another time.

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Aug 30, 2009 Felix Castro rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting and entertaining history of the early days of the personal computer industry in Northern California. Proof that dreams and ideas are powerful and although they may be ahead of their time, can come to fruition. If you are interested in the history of the computer industry, read this book.

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Dec 26, 2009 John added it

Refreshing to hear of the contributions to technology made outside of MIT, which has always seemed disproportionately documented, and to hear about the various cultural influences as well.

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Mar 26, 2009 Morgan rated it 5 of 5 stars

How a bunch of social misfits and hippies made the personal computer and made the computer, personal. It was starched white shirts and country club memberships that piloted what we know today as our laptops and desktops, but folks who wanted to enhance their minds, expand their art and decentralize authority.

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May 23, 2011 Nicola D'agostino is currently reading it

Molto interessante e complementare a diversi altri libri fondamentali come "Hackers" e "Dealers of Lightning".

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