In the tech business, we’re always in a rush to get ahead. It’s all about speed to market. Keep moving, keep changing, keep innovating. Everything can be improved and is just Version 1.0 for something. History gets short shrift. But I’m a historian by inclination, if not profession. I agree with Santayana that those who forget the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them. So if you’re interested in learning a little more about “the backstory” of our business, read on:
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, Repeat
A seminal event in technology was observed last week, with relatively little fanfare: the “founding” of the Internet. On October 29, 1969, the first transmission over the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, occurred when a researcher at the UCLA computer lab sent an electronic message from his room-sized computer to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute. The purpose: to log into the SRI computer from UCLA. National Public Radio is running “an occasional series” called “The Internet @ 40” which looks at the people behind the Internet, its effect on our lives today, and predictions for the future. You can listen to the episode describing the events of October 29 (“’Lo’ and Behold: A Communication Revolution”), read the transcript or download the podcast.
Ripped from the Headlines … of 1910
I’m currently reading “Thunderstruck” by Erik Larson, published in 2006, which adheres to the patented Larson formula of two parallel stories, in alternating chapters: that of infamous Madame Tussaud’s denizen, the wife-filleter Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, with that of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel Prize-winning Trivial Pursuit answer to “who invented radio?” (Larson previously wrote the bestseller “Devil in the White City” which cleverly juxtaposed the story behind the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 with a serial killer operating in Chicago during the same time period.)
I admit I picked up the book to learn more about Dr. Crippen, familiar to me from dozens of references in Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and other 20th century mystery novels. I’ve found, though, that Marconi’s story has more relevance to my life today — a young entrepreneur travels to a foreign country to patent his dream technology, seek funding, fight off competitors, and secure customers, all the while struggling against an atmosphere of bubbling radical terrorism and hostility to immigrants. Sound familiar? One of my favorite expressions is la plus ça change, la plus c’est la même chose.
Comments