Episode 083 - Brian Dear

In this episode, we’re exploring that future by looking to the past. Leading Lines producer Cliff Anderson shares a fascinating interview with tech entrepreneur Brian Dear about his book The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture. The book tells the story of PLATO, an experiment in the 1960s and 1970s to see if a computer could teach people. In the interview, Brian Dear talks about the development of PLATO and its impact on the history of computing. He mentions a few names you likely know, like Douglas Engelbart, Seymour Papert, and Isaac Asimov, as well as a few you likely don’t. And he discusses the origin and importance of things we often take for granted today, like a display that responds as you type and the role of social connections in learning. This episode is a little longer than our usual, but if you have any interest in the history of computing, I think you’ll find it really interesting. Links • Brian Dear’s website, http://brianstorms.com/ • The Friendly Orange Glow (Penguin Random House, 2017), https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545610/the-friendly-orange-glow-by-brian-dear/ • Brian (@brianstorms) Dear on Twitter, https://twitter.com/brianstorms • “The Story of John Hunter’s World Peace Game, Roger Ebert, and the PLATO System” by Brian Dear, https://medium.com/@brianstorms/the-story-of-john-hunters-world-peace-game-roger-ebert-and-the-plato-system-4b3bb571fa2