Government Transparency as the Object of Computing

J. C. R. Licklider (1915-1990) was early to expound on the potential of computing. His papers "Man-Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer as a Communications Device" (both collected here) foresaw many of the uses we make of computers and the Internet today.

In Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet, Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon write about "Lick's" vision for computing's influence on society:

In a McLuhanesque view of the power of electronic media, Lick saw a future in which...