The Dream Machine (2001)

Mitchell Waldrop weaves a panoramic intellectual biography of J.C.R. Licklider, the psychologist and computer scientist who foresaw human-computer symbiosis long before microprocessors existed. The book highlights the philosophical clashes between mainframe batch-processing dogmatists and early proponents of interactive, time-shared computing systems. Waldrop masterfully illustrates how Licklider's strategic stewardship of Pentagon funding nurtured the architects who ultimately realised personal workstations and distributed networks.