J. C. R. Licklider

{{short description|American psychologist and computer scientist (1915-1990)}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider

| other_names = J. C. R
Lick
"Computing's Johnny Appleseed"

| image = J. C. R. Licklider.jpg

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1915|03|11}}

| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1990|06|26|1915|03|11}}

| death_place = Arlington, Massachusetts, U.S.

| education = Washington University in St. Louis
University of Rochester

| spouse = Louise Carpenter

| children = 2

| doctoral_students = Dalbir Bindra{{cite journal|jstor=1422665|title=Dalbir Bindra: 1922-1980|first=Ronald|last=Melzack|date=1 January 1982|journal=The American Journal of Psychology|volume=95|issue=1|pages=161–163}}

| known_for = Cybernetics/Interactive computing
"Intergalactic Computer Network" (Internet)
Artificial Intelligence
Psychoacoustics

| influenced = Jerome I. Elkind{{cite web|title=Jerome I. Elkind '51, ScD '56|url=http://energy.mit.edu/member/jerome-elkind/|website=MIT Energy Initiative|publisher=MIT|access-date=20 December 2016|archive-date=4 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204004025/http://energy.mit.edu/member/jerome-elkind/|url-status=dead}}

}}

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɪ|k|l|aɪ|d|ər}}; March 11, 1915 – June 26, 1990), known simply as J. C. R. or "Lick", was an American psychologistMiller, G. A. (1991), "J. C. R. Licklider, psychologist", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 89, no. 4B, pp. 1887–1887 and computer scientist who is considered to be among the most prominent figures in computer science development and general computing history.

He is particularly remembered for being one of the first to foresee modern-style interactive computing and its application to all manner of activities; and also as an Internet pioneer with an early vision of a worldwide computer network long before it was built. He did much to initiate this by funding research that led to significant advances in computing technology, including today's canonical graphical user interface, and the ARPANET, which is the direct predecessor of the Internet.

Robert Taylor, founder of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory and Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center, noted that "most of the significant advances in computer technology—including the work that my group did at Xerox PARC—were simply extrapolations of Lick's vision. They were not really new visions of their own. So he was really the father of it all".{{cite book | last=Waldrop | first=M. Mitchell | title=The Dream Machine: J. C. R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal | publisher=Viking Penguin | year=2001 | location=New York | page=[https://archive.org/details/dreammachinejcrl00wald/page/470 470] | isbn=978-0-670-89976-0 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/dreammachinejcrl00wald/page/470 }}

Biography

Licklider was born on March 11, 1915, in St. Louis, Missouri.[http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/licklider.html Internet Pioneers: J.C.R. Licklider], retrieved online: 2009-05-19 He was the only child of Joseph Parron Licklider, a Baptist minister, and Margaret Robnett Licklider.[http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/licklider-j-c-r.pdf Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider 1915—1990], A Biographical Memoir by Robert M. Fano, National Academies Press, Washington D.C., 1998 Despite his father's religious background, he was not religious in later life.{{cite book|title=The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal|year=2002|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780142001356|author=M. Mitchell Waldrop|page=471|quote=Al Vezza was insistent, remembers Louise Licklider. "Lick had said that he didn't want any kind of to-do when he died", she says. "He wasn't religious himself, even though his father had been a Southern Baptist minister, so it would seem totally phony if he'd had a big religious service."}}

He studied at Washington University in St. Louis, where he received a B.A. with a triple major in physics, mathematics, and psychology in 1937{{cite book|url=http://www.cs.rit.edu/~rpretc/imm/project1/biography.html|author=Raychel Rappold|title=Biography|publisher=Rochester University|access-date=2015-08-08|archive-date=2016-11-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117201116/https://www.cs.rit.edu/~rpretc/imm/project1/biography.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxGyOaAyd6gC&pg=PA60 |author1=H. Peter Alesso |author2=Craig F. Smith |title=Connections: Patterns of Discovery|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=18 Jan 2008 |isbn=978-0470191521}} and an M.A. in psychology in 1938. He received a Ph.D. in psychoacoustics from the University of Rochester in 1942 as well as a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Rochester, that same year. Thereafter he worked at Harvard University as a research fellow and lecturer in the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory from 1943 to 1950.

He became interested in information technology, and moved to MIT in 1950 as an associate professor, where he served on a committee that established the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and a psychology program for engineering students. While at MIT, Licklider was involved in the SAGE project as head of the team concerned with human factors.{{cite book |url=http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr00/licklider.aspx|author=J. CHAMBERLIN|title=Psychologists's work and dreams led to the rise of the Internet|publisher=published by the American Psychological Association, April 2000, Vol 31, No. 4|access-date=2015-08-13}} In 1957, he received the Franklin V. Taylor Award from the Society of Engineering Psychologists. In 1958, he was elected President of the Acoustical Society of America, and in 1990 he received the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service.{{cite web |url= http://www.columbia.edu/~jrh29/years.html |title= J. C. R. Licklider (1915–1990) |author= Jay R. Hauben |publisher= Columbia University |access-date= March 30, 2011 }}

Licklider left MIT to become a vice president at Bolt Beranek and Newman in 1957. He learned about time-sharing from Christopher Strachey at a UNESCO-sponsored conference on Information Processing in Paris in 1959.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill|url-access=registration|title=How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web|last1=Gillies|first1=James M.|last2=Gillies|first2=James|last3=Gillies|first3=James and Cailliau Robert|last4=Cailliau|first4=R.|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-286207-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill/page/13 13]|language=en}}F. J. Corbató, et al., [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/ctss/CTSS_ProgrammersGuide.pdf The Compatible Time-Sharing System A Programmer's Guide] (MIT Press, 1963) {{ISBN|978-0-262-03008-3}}. "To establish the context of the present work, it is informative to trace the development of time-sharing at MIT. Shortly after the first paper on time-shared computers by C. Strachey at the June 1959 UNESCO Information Processing conference, H.M. Teager and J. McCarthy delivered an unpublished paper "Time-Shared Program Testing" at the August 1959 ACM Meeting." At BBN he developed the BBN Time-Sharing System and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.{{Cite web|title=Computer - Time-sharing and minicomputers|url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/computer/Time-sharing-and-minicomputers|access-date=2020-01-23|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|quote=In 1959 Christopher Strachey in the United Kingdom and John McCarthy in the United States independently described something they called time-sharing. Meanwhile, computer pioneer J.C.R. Licklider at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began to promote the idea of interactive computing as an alternative to batch processing.}}

In October 1962, Licklider was appointed head of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at ARPA, the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,{{cite book|title=Computing: A Concise History|url=https://archive.org/details/computingconcise00ceru_864|url-access=limited|year=2012|publisher=The MIT Press|isbn=9780262517676|author=Paul E. Ceruzzi|page=[https://archive.org/details/computingconcise00ceru_864/page/n87 75]}} an appointment he kept through July 1964.[https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2016/03/102717159-05-01-acc.pdf "Interview of Joseph Carl Robnett (J.C.R.) Licklider"], by James Pelkey, Computer History Museum, June 28, 1988.{{cite book|url=http://dm.lcc.gatech.edu/~mazalek/courses/fall10/lcc6310/student_slides/2010-09-09_doris-down_licklider.pdf|author=Ali Mazalek|title="Man-Computer Symbiosis" Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Borg|publisher=published by Georgia Institute of Technology|access-date=2015-08-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305150919/http://dm.lcc.gatech.edu/~mazalek/courses/fall10/lcc6310/student_slides/2010-09-09_doris-down_licklider.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-05|url-status=dead}} In April 1963, he sent a memo to his colleagues in outlining the early challenges presented in establishing a time-sharing network of computers with the software of that time.{{cite web |author= J. C. R. Licklider |title= Memorandum For Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network|date=April 23, 1963 |location= Washington, D.C. |publisher=Advanced Research Projects Agency |url= http://www.kurzweilai.net/memorandum-for-members-and-affiliates-of-the-intergalactic-computer-network |access-date= August 19, 2013 }} Ultimately his vision led to ARPANet, the precursor of today's Internet.{{cite web |title="Man-Computer Symbiosis" In MIT 150 Exhibition |year=2011 |url=http://museum.mit.edu/150/30 |access-date=April 20, 2013 |archive-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022080234/http://museum.mit.edu/150/30 |url-status=dead }}

After serving as manager of information sciences, systems and applications at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York from 1964 to 1967, Licklider rejoined MIT as a professor of electrical engineering in 1968. During this period, he concurrently served as director of Project MAC until 1971.{{Cite web|url=https://libraries.mit.edu/mithistory/research/labs/lcs/|title = Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) | MIT History}} Project MAC had produced the first computer time-sharing system, CTSS, and one of the first online setups with the development of Multics (work on which commenced in 1964). Multics provided inspiration for some elements of the Unix operating system developed at Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in 1970.{{cite book|last=Raymond|first=Eric S.|title=The Art of Unix Programming|year=2003|url={{Google books|H4q1t-jAcBIC|The Art of Unix Programming|page=30|plainurl=yes}}|page=30}}

Following a second stint as IPTO director (1974–1975), his MIT faculty line was transferred to the Institute's Laboratory for Computer Science, where he was based for the remainder of his career. He was a founding member of Infocom in 1979, known for their interactive fiction computer games.{{cite magazine |title=The Next Dimension |first=Wayne |last=Williams |magazine=Retro Gamer |issue=10 |publisher=Imagine Publishing |pages=30–41}} He retired and became professor emeritus in 1985. He died in 1990 in Arlington, Massachusetts; his cremated remains are interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Work

= Psychoacoustics =

In the psychoacoustics field, Licklider is most remembered for his 1951 "Duplex Theory of Pitch Perception", presented in a paperLicklider, J. C. R. (1951). "A duplex theory of pitch perception". Experientia (Basel) 7, 4, 128–134. which has been cited hundreds of times,{{cite web | url = https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22duplex+theory+of+pitch+perception%22++licklider+1951&btnG=Search | title = Google Scholar}} was reprinted in a 1979 book,{{cite book | title = Psychological Acoustics | author = Earl D. Schubert | publisher = Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Inc. | year = 1979 | place = Stroudsburg PA }} and formed the basis for modern models of pitch perception.{{cite book | title = The Auditory Processing of Speech: From Sounds to Words |author1=R. D. Patterson |author2=J. Holdsworth |author3=M. Allerhand |chapter = Auditory Models as Preprocessors for Speech Recognition | editor = Marten Egbertus Hendrik Schouten | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 1992 | isbn = 978-3-11-013589-3 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X5f-VgTo0fAC&q=%22Duplex+Theory%22+%22Pitch+Perception%22++models&pg=PA73 }} He was also the first to report binaural unmasking of speech.{{cite journal |vauthors=Licklider JC | title= The influence of interaural phase relations upon the masking of speech by white noise | journal = J. Acoust. Soc. Am. | volume = 20 | issue= 2 | pages = 150–159 | date = 1948| bibcode= 1948ASAJ...20..150L | doi= 10.1121/1.1906358 }}

= Semi-Automatic Ground Environment =

File:SAGE console.jpeg

While at MIT in the 1950s, Licklider worked on Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), a Cold War project to create a computer-aided air defense system. The SAGE system included computers that collected and presented data to a human operator, who then chose the appropriate response. He worked as a human factors expert, which helped convince him of the great potential for human/computer interfaces.[http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_licklider.htm "J. C. R. Licklider And The Universal Network"], Living Internet, accessed 18 September 2012

=Information technology=

Licklider became interested in information technology early in his career. His ideas foretold of graphical computing, point-and-click interfaces, digital libraries, e-commerce, online banking, and software that would exist on a network and migrate wherever it was needed. Much like Vannevar Bush's, Licklider's contribution to the development of the Internet consists of ideas, not inventions. He foresaw the need for networked computers with easy user interfaces.

Licklider was instrumental in conceiving, funding and managing the research that led to modern personal computers and the Internet. In 1960 his seminal paper on "Man-Computer Symbiosis" foreshadowed interactive computing, and he went on to fund early efforts in time-sharing and application development, most notably the work of Douglas Engelbart, who founded the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute and created the famous On-Line System where the computer mouse was invented. He also did some seminal early work for the Council on Library Resources, imagining what libraries of the future might look like,{{cite book |url=http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/Courses/e553/Readings/Licklider%20Libraries%20of%20the%20future%201965.pdf |last=Licklider |first=J. C. R. |title=Libraries of the Future |year=1965 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=1965 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916152457/http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/Courses/e553/Readings/Licklider%20Libraries%20of%20the%20future%201965.pdf |archive-date=2012-09-16 }} which he describes as "thinking centers" in his 1960 paper.

== Man–computer symbiosis ==

In "Man-Computer Symbiosis", Licklider in 1960 outlined the need for simpler interaction between computers and computer users.{{citation |last=Guice|first=Jon|year=1998|title= Controversy and the State: Lord ARPA and Intelligence Computing|journal=Social Studies of Science|volume=28| issue=1|pages=103–138|jstor=285752|doi=10.1177/030631298028001004|pmid=11619937|s2cid=23036109}} Licklider has been credited as an early pioneer of cybernetics and artificial intelligence (AI),{{cite web |title=J. C. R. Licklider |url=http://www.thocp.net/biographies/licklidder_jcr.html |work=The History of Computing Project |publisher=thocp.net |date=July 8, 2001 |access-date=August 7, 2011}} but unlike other AI practitioners, he never felt sure that men would be replaced by computer-based beings. As he wrote in the article: "Men will set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking". He goes on to write in the same article: "In short, it seems worthwhile to avoid argument with (other) enthusiasts for artificial intelligence by conceding dominance in the distant future of cerebration to machines alone".Licklider, J. C. R., [http://medg.lcs.mit.edu/people/psz/Licklider.html "Man-Computer Symbiosis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051103053540/http://medg.lcs.mit.edu/people/psz/Licklider.html |date=2005-11-03 }}, IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, vol. HFE-1, 4-11, March 1960. This approach, focusing on effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence, is sometimes called Intelligence amplification (IA). Peter Highnam, DARPA director in 2020, focused on human-machine partnership as a long-term goal and guiding light ever since Licklider's 1960 publication.{{Cite journal |last=Highnam |first=Peter |date=2020-06-23 |title=The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Artificial Intelligence Vision |url=https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/5301 |journal=AI Magazine |language=en |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=83–85 |doi=10.1609/aimag.v41i2.5301 |issn=2371-9621}}

== Project MAC ==

During his time as director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) from 1962 to 1964, he funded Project MAC at MIT. A large mainframe computer was designed to be shared by up to 30 simultaneous users, each sitting at a separate "typewriter terminal". He also funded similar projects at Stanford University, UCLA, UC Berkeley (called Project Genie), and the AN/FSQ-32 at System Development Corporation.

This time-sharing technology later developed to become what today are known as servers.

== Global computer network ==

Licklider played a similar role in conceiving of and funding early networking research. He formulated the earliest ideas of a global computer network in August 1962 at BBN, in a series of memos discussing the "Intergalactic Computer Network" concept. These ideas contained almost everything that the Internet is today, including cloud computing.{{cite web |last=Mohamed |first=Arif |date=March 2009 |title=A History of Cloud Computing |publisher=ComputerWeekly |url=http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/06/10/235429/A-history-of-cloud-computing.htm |access-date=May 1, 2012}}

While at IPTO he convinced Ivan Sutherland, Bob Taylor, and Lawrence G. Roberts that an all-encompassing computer network was a very important concept. He met with Donald Davies in 1965 and inspired his interest in data communications.{{cite web|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/ev-packet-sw.html|title=The Evolution of Packet Switching|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|date=November 1978|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324033133/http://www.packet.cc/files/ev-packet-sw.html|archive-date=March 24, 2016|access-date=5 September 2017|quote=Almost immediately after the 1965 meeting, Donald Davies conceived of the details of a store-and-forward packet switching system}}{{cite web|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|date=May 1995|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324032800/http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|archive-date=March 24, 2016|access-date=13 April 2016}}

In 1967 Licklider submitted the paper "Televistas: Looking ahead through side windows" to the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television.[http://creativecadio.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/2/2/10226800/licklider-televistas-carnegie-1967.pdf "Televistas: Looking ahead through side windows"], J. C. R. Licklider, Supplementary Papers submitted to the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, 1967 This paper describes a radical departure from the "broadcast" model of television. Instead Licklider advocates for a two-way communications network. The Carnegie Commission led to the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Although the Commission's report explains that "Dr. Licklider's paper was completed after the Commission had formulated its own conclusions," President Johnson said at the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, "So I think we must consider new ways to build a great network for knowledge—not just a broadcast system, but one that employs every means of sending and of storing information that the individual can use".{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Lyndon B. |title=Remarks of President Lyndon B. Johnson Upon Signing the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 |url=http://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/remarks.html |publisher=cpb.org |date=November 7, 1967 |access-date=August 7, 2011 |archive-date=August 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110808055415/http://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/remarks.html |url-status=dead }}

His 1968 paper The Computer as a Communication Device illustrates his vision of network applications and predicts the use of computer networks to support communities of common interest and collaboration without regard to location.[http://memex.org/licklider.pdf "The Computer as a Communication Device"], J.C.R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor, Science and Technology, April 1968

In the same 1968 paper, J. C. R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor wrote, "Take any problem worthy of the name, and you find only a few people who can contribute effectively to its solution. Those people must be brought into close intellectual partnership so that their ideas can come into contact with one another. But bring these people together physically in one place to form a team, and you have trouble, for the most creative people are often not the best team players, and there are not enough top positions in a single organization to keep them all happy. Let them go their separate ways, and each creates his own empire, large or small, and devotes more time to the role of emperor than to the role of problem solver. The principals still get together at meetings. They still visit one another. But the time scale of their communication stretches out, and the correlations among mental models degenerate between meetings so that it may take a year to do a week's communicating. There has to be some way of facilitating communication among people wit bout [sic] [without] bringing them together in one place." (Evan Herbert edited the article and acted as intermediary during its writing between Licklider in Boston and Taylor in Washington.)

The Licklider Transmission Protocol is named after him.

Publications

Licklider wrote numerous articles and lectures, and one book:

1942. An Electrical Investigation of Frequency-Localization in the Auditory Cortex of the Cat. Ph.D. Thesis University of Rochester
1965. [https://archive.org/details/librariesoffutur00lickuoft Libraries of the future]. Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120916152457/http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/Courses/e553/Readings/Licklider%20Libraries%20of%20the%20future%201965.pdf alternative online source])

Articles, a selection:

1960. [http://memex.org/licklider.pdf "Man-Computer Symbiosis"]. In: Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, volume HFE-1, pp. 4–11, March 1960.
1963. [http://www.chick.net/wizards/memo.html "Memorandum for Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network"]. Advanced Research Projects Agency, April 23, 1963.
1965. "Man-Computer Partnership". In: International Science and Technology May 1965.
1967. [http://creativecadio.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/2/2/10226800/licklider-televistas-carnegie-1967.pdf "Televistas: Looking ahead through side windows"]. Report of the Carnegie Commission on Public Television, 1967, pp. 201–225.
1967. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9905E4DF103CE43BBC4153DFB766838C679EDE "Computers Are Helping Scientists Locate That Particular Pebble in the New Avalanche of Information"]
1968. [http://memex.org/licklider.pdf "The Computer as a Communication Device"]. In: Science and Technology. April 1968.

References

External links

[http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_licklider.htm J. C. R. Licklider And The Universal Network] — Living Internet
[http://purl.umn.edu/107436 Oral history interview with J. C. R. Licklider] at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Licklider, the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's (ARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), discusses his work at Lincoln Laboratory and IPTO. Topics include: personnel recruitment; the interrelations between the various Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratories; Licklider's relationship with Bolt, Beranek, and Newman; the work of ARPA director Jack Ruina; IPTO's influence of computer science research in the areas of interactive computing and timesharing; the ARPA contracting process; the work of Ivan Sutherland.
[http://purl.umn.edu/107387 Oral history interview with Robert E. Kahn] at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kahn discusses the work of various DARPA and IPTO personnel including J. C. R. Licklider.
{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/03/obituaries/joseph-cr-licklider-dies-at-75-foresaw-new-uses-for-computers.html|title=Joseph C.R. Licklider Dies at 75 – Foresaw New Uses for Computers|date=3 July 1990|newspaper=New York Times|author=Glenn Fowler|access-date=28 June 2015}}