Our second season launches with a three-part series featuring the preeminent Mitch Waldrop. We discuss the history, ideas, and origins of computing, software, the internet – and of course, the pioneers and unsung heroes who made it all a reality. It’s hard to imagine a better place to start exploring the more modern notions of change, technology, and software.

Mitch is the author of The Dream Machine, a seminal contribution to the history of modern computing and the internet. Mitch was previously an editorial page and features editor at Nature magazine and has published books on a wide range of topics, including artificial intelligence and complexity.  We tried doing justice to the content of the Dream Machine in one sitting, which quickly expanded into three discrete recording sessions over a handful weeks. We are forever grateful to Mitch.

Our third and final episode with Mitch includes the story behind the intellectual forefather of the internet and interactive computing, JCR Licklider. This was the first recording we did with Mitch which covers a sprawling and wide range of topics, including: JCR Licklider’s role in the research and engineering of personal computing, Xerox PARC and the personal computing revolution, contributions from Alan Turing and Norbert Wiener, adoption of TCP/IP, and the nature of software and computing.

About and from M. Mitchell Waldrop:

• Computer History Museum Bio
• https://twitter.com/mitchwaldrop 
• The Dream Machine 
• Complexity 

Assorted Links:

• The chips are down for Moore’s law 
• Google Scholar: Mitchell Waldrop 
• M. Mitchell Waldrop: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle 
• Scientific American: Stories by M. Mitchell Waldrop

Recommendations:

• The Expanse (novel series)
• Authors: Ezra Klein, Paul Krugman, Thomas Friedman, David Brooks, Jennifer Rubin, David Frum

Luminary Podcast:

• Visit us:  https://www.luminary.fm
• Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/luminaryfm
• Luminary on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/luminary-fm 

Music:

• Music used in this podcast: Simplex Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com): Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
• Chipper Doodle Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com): Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0