Vannevar Bush is a great name for playing six degrees of separation. Turn back the clock on any aspect of information technology - from the birth of Silicon Valley and the marriage of science and the military to the advent of the World Wide Web - and you find his footprints. As historian Michael Sherry says, 'To understand the world of Bill Gates and Bill Clinton, start with understanding Vannevar Bush.'
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Vannevar Bush's ideas and influence are foundational to modern IT, linking past military science to the web and Silicon Valley.
- In plain terms
- Bush's work connects old military tech to today's internet and computing world.
- What can you take from it?
- Study past innovators to understand current tech.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who else shaped IT history?
- How do you trace influence?
Another view
Focusing on one figure may overlook other important contributors.
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