Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (
March 11, 1915 –
June 26, 1990), known simply as J.C.R. or "Lick" was an
American computer scientist, considered one of the most important figures in
computer science and general
computing history. After early work in
psychoacoustics, he became interested in
information technology early in his career. Much like
Vannevar Bush, J.C.R. Licklider's contribution to the development of the
Internet consists of ideas, not inventions. He foresaw the need for networked
computers with easy user interfaces. His ideas foretold of graphical computing, point-and-click interfaces, digital libraries, e-commerce, online banking, and software that would exist on a network and migrate wherever it was needed. Licklider was instrumental in conceiving, funding and managing the research that led to modern personal computers and the Internet. His seminal paper on
Man-Computer Symbiosis foreshadowed interactive computing, and he went on to fund early efforts in time-sharing and application development, most notably the work of
Douglas Engelbart, who founded the
Augmentation Research Center at
Stanford Research Institute and created the famous
On-Line System. He played a similar role in conceiving of and funding early networking research, most notably the
ARPAnet.
