Hardware Podcasts

The Wrath of Kahn

Oxide and Friends · 16 Nov 2021 · 59m · Episode 22

What this episode covers

Bryan Cantrill, Adam Leventhal, and a group of engineers including Tom Lyon, Dan Cross, and bch discuss the history of computing, focusing on Severo Ornstein's book 'Computing in the Middle Ages' and the myth of the 'lone inventor.' They analyze the contributions of figures like Don Knuth, Bob Kahn, and Doug Engelbart, arguing that major technological breakthroughs like the Internet and ARPANET were team efforts often obscured by press narratives that lionize single individuals. The group contrasts this with collaborative figures like Andy van Dam and Ron Minnich, who actively shared credit, and discusses how funding models from DARPA to venture capital influence who gets recognized for innovation.

Most relevant to

large enterprises

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Oxide Computer Company, DARPA
Products
DECtalk, DTrace, ZFS
Also
Computing in the Middle Ages: A View from the Trenches 1955-1983, TX-2, LINC, ARPANET, Don Knuth, Bob Kahn, Bob Taylor, Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, Andy van Dam, Ron Minnich, Dennis Klatt, Doug Engelbart, Michael Stonebraker, The Dream Machine: JCR Licklider and the Revolution that Made Computing Personal

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