Man-Computer Symbiosis

Licklider described a mode of work in which the person sets goals and frames hypotheses while the machine handles the routine part in real time.

Why it matters

It is an alternative statement of the field's aim, to share the work rather than replace the person.

Licklider estimated that most of his own working time went to finding and preparing data rather than thinking. Two years later he headed IPTO at ARPA, and there chose the contractors for Project MAC and other time-sharing centres. The computer network he dreamed of was built by his successors and became the ARPANET.

Event record

Event date

March 1960

Timeline date

Event date

Verification

Sources gathered automatically · September 17, 2026

Lines

Tools

ID

evt-0091

The March 1960 issue of IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics.

J. C. R. Licklider

Sources

primary Man-Computer Symbiosis
IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics · Published March 1960
primary An Interview with Ivan Sutherland, OH 171 (interviewer William Aspray)
Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota · Published May 1, 1989
primary An Interview with Lawrence G. Roberts, OH 159 (interviewer Arthur Norberg)
Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota · Published April 4, 1989

Related events

Earlier

Related SAGE goes on duty 1958links to this record
Licklider wrote about man-computer symbiosis while the first system of that kind was already on operational duty.
Related As We May Think 1945
The paper continues Bush's framing of a machine that helps one think.

Later

Builds on Project MAC is founded 1963links to this record
The funding came from the office headed by the author of Man-Computer Symbiosis.
- Project MAC · Multicians