What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, by John Markoff

Chances are that most days you sit at a personal computer, using a mouse and keyboard to enter information into a graphical Windows-based system. You probably use email, search for information, and read publications on the Internet. Many of these functions are duplicated on small laptop computers, or even smaller cell phone style browsers.

With personal computers so deeply integrated into our lives, it is difficult to imagine that in the late 1960s almost no one outside of science fiction had any inkling that computers would become such a common necessity. Even science fiction greats like Isaac Asimov missed the boat, imagining a world-spanning Multivac accessible to a chosen few rather than democratic, widespread computer usage.

John Markoff examines the work of a few visionaries who took the power of computing and, to a large extent inspired by the political ideals of the 60s, created affordable, usable computers that led to the machines we use today.

This is a story of research funding—of how a very few big thinkers at the Defense Department managed to pay for a bunch of hippies to develop email. It is a story of missed opportunities—HP turned down not one, but two opportunities to get in on the ground floor of personal computing. It is the story of how each generation of computing geniuses completely misses and dismisses the “next big thing”—and it makes you wonder what is next.

As a tale of the not-so-inevitable development of a ubiquitous technology, this book is a fascinating and surprising read; most of the heroes here have been lost in the popular mythology, and some big names like Steve Jobs and William Gates make only minor appearances (Gates appears with one of the first attempts to enforce software copyright—sounds familiar?). Markoff’s argument that the counterculture influenced the development of the personal computer is somewhat less interesting, and less convincing (especially when it comes to the supposed joys of LSD).

What the Dormouse Said will make you appreciate the box on—or under—your desk in a whole new way, with a greater appreciation for all the leaps of vision, culture, and technology that got us here, and will leave you wondering what comes next.