Robert Taylor: Network Visionary

[Recorded May 13, 2010]
Bob Taylor planned to be a Methodist minister like his father. Instead, he became an evangelist for an idea that changed the world: easy-to-use computers that talk to each other. "I was never interested in the computer as a mathematical device, but as a communication device," Taylor said. Taylor's interests -- and his genius for getting them funded -- helped develop computer networking, the personal computer, and many of the other technologies that drove the global computer revolution.

As director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques office, Taylor funded Doug Engelbart, inventor of the mouse and co-inventor of many of the aspects of computing we take for granted today from clickable links to multiple windows. Taylor then hired networking pioneer Larry Roberts to oversee the ARPAnet project -- the first major experiment in general computer networking, and a key ancestor of the Internet.

As founder of the Xerox PARC Computer Systems Laboratory, Taylor went on to recruit and manage the hot-tempered brigade of geniuses who developed the set of features so familiar on our Mac and Windows machines today, including the graphical user interface, Ethernet and laser printing. He also oversaw important work in connecting networks to each other.

In this candid and far-ranging discussion with Guy Raz, the weekend host of NPR's All Things Considered, Taylor shares his life stories and discusses the process of fostering innovation and the evolution of radical technologies.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Computer
• History
• Museum
• Robert
• Bob
• Taylor
• networking
• ARPA
• ARPAnet
• Engelbart
• Vietnam
• Xerox
• PARC
• internet
• Ethernet
• GUI
• laser
• printing
• windows
• technology
• Silicon
• Valley

[michaelpousti]

fantastic report .. congrats =)



[LeQuack147]

And he plays Civ 4... nice. Even the best of us are not immune to "one....more....turn...."

[C7B27D7B4]

robert w. taylor is to the internet as j. robert oppenheimer is to the a-bomb---and i do mean that in a positive way :-)

both men were instrumental in bringing us into a new age... not through their visions, but through their will and their skill to realize the visions of others

[jtel]

Great video.

[toddrockoff]

@kevinarmstrong Which details would you differ with Bob about? Thanks --todd

[kevinarmstrong1]

Fascinating interview! However, I am willing to bet Robert Taylor's peers differ with him on some fairly significant details. 

[x246869]

We switched from a small Honeywell (punched cards, batch) to small Dec (terminals, timesharing) in mid 1970s. The Honeywell salesmen went to our companies VP and told him "no one uses time sharing in a business environment" and cut their bid by 50$K but we still recommended and went with Dec.

[maskedphrogg]

@junka22

It is the signal to noise ratio that is in the basement.

At the onset of internetworking the network was self-documenting. How the network worked could be readily discovered by using the network itself. This was without doubt in large part due to the fact that at it's onset there was little else documented and indexed on the network. There are many other gems "out there," filtering the chaff from the wheat can be a challenge.

[adrianjcc]

Can the Internet booklet be had as PDF or ordered somehow?

[gregcnz]

Excellent.