rnd.lit.rec:_the_friendly_orange_glow.md (3308B)
1 --- 2 title: the friendly orange glow 3 keywords: [rndlitrec] 4 ... 5 6 ## random.literature.recommendation 7 _The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture_ by Brian Dear 8 9 #### blurb 10 > The remarkable untold story of PLATO, the computer program and platform created in the 1960s, that marked the true beginning of cyberculture--a book that will rewrite the history of computing and the Internet 11 12 > Here is the story of the brilliant, eccentric designers, developers, and denizens (often teenagers and twentysomethings) of the PLATO system, a computer network so far ahead of its time, and with a list of hardware and software innovations so long, that it's almost inconceivable that it actually existed--and existed so long ago--only to fade almost entirely from public view. The many thousands of people who used the system have held on to the PLATO ideas throughout their careers, influencing countless technological products and programs: from flat-panel wall TVs and touch-sensitive screens to chat rooms, instant messaging, screen savers, multiplayer games, flight simulators, crowdsourcing, interactive fiction, emoticons, and e-learning. Fascinating, first hand, and revelatory, The Friendly Orange Glow makes clear that the work of PLATO practitioners has profoundly shaped the computer industry from its inception to our very moment. 13 14 > This book is as much the biography of a vision as it is the story of the people behind PLATO. Every technology story--whether it's about the steam engine, airplane, telephone, Model T, or more recently, Apple, Google, and Tesla electric car--has at its core a vision. It is the immutable nature of technology, and technology visions, to run full life cycles, from cradle to grave. PLATO's story is no different. Like all technology visions, PLATO grew outdated and was disrupted by competing visions. The Friendly Orange Glow is a revelatory paradigm for our technological age. 15 16 --- 17 18 I love learning about the history of technology and this book is a goldmine of information. A little surprisingly, I had never heard of the PLATO system and yet while reading The Friendly Orange Glow it amazed me how many inventions, both hardware and software, started with PLATO. 19 20 Brian Dear spent over a decade compiling this book. The extensive research and interviews with the people who built and worked on PLATO craft an incredible story of what could be considered the first social network. Starting as an education tool it grow into an international community of like minded folk writing software, playing games, and even falling in love. 21 22 It was strange hearing about the technology and reminding myself that this was pre-internet, even before desktop computers, and yet elements of the cyberculture I still love today existed. Anyone that reads my blog or knows me online will know that I am a terminal user and still hang around on IRC servers. I also poke around BBS servers and public access systems such as [sdf.org][sdf] or various [tilde][tilde] communities. The story of PLATO gives a warm nostalgic feeling of an age of computing not dominated by adverts and the need to make money. 23 24 For anyone who loves the history of computing I strongly recommend this book. 25 26 [sdf]: https://sdf.org 27 [tilde]: https://tildeverse.org