John Chicklider Essay

The internet, like every other innovation of the Digital Age, was not created by one lone person. There is much speculation about who should be considered the creator of the internet? Walter Isaacson brought a good point to my attention, What exactly is the internet? I couldn’t answer it. Few can. Isaacson brought forth solid evidence on why John Licklider should receive much of the credit on the creation of the internet.
John Licklider was not a software expert by any means. He had a psychology degree, and he toyed around a bit with computer science and computer history. Far from an expert. Licklider did, however, have visions (similar to that of Ada Byron) of how great the future will be. He believed that humans will be able to create machines
that will allow one to access a seemingly endless amount of information in a moments notice and will be able to share this information with the world. Licklider’s visions were right. He did little in terms of programing. He was just the idea man. He is often credited for directing the military office that helped fund the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). With both financial help and intellectual help from Licklider, this agency was able to create the world’s first packet switching network. Over time, Licklider was able to help formulate the idea and the creation of a time sharing system, which allowed several programs to share resources with a computer. As time went on, more and more of Licklider’s ideas were created and updated as technology advanced at a rapid pace. As time went on, the systems that the ARPANET had created had slowly been upgraded to meet the needs of the time. By the 1980s, ARPANET, with the help of John Licklider had essentially created the internet with the programs they began making in the 1960s and the programs they continued to create.
It’s no easy task selecting one to play the distinguished role of John Licklider.
Jake Gyllenhaal, however, is more than qualified to do this. It doesn't take much research of Licklider to realize how (for lack of a better word) odd he was. Licklider mostly kept to himself, unless it involved his work. He had few close friends, and was considered to be incredibly socially awkward. All of these characteristics I see in many of the characters Gyllenhaal has portrayed. In Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal portrayed a psychotic criminal photographer who shows many of the same characteristics as a sociopath. Demolition, Gyllenhaal plays a man who realizes after the death of his wife that he really didn't know her. He literally destroys his life to start a new in hopes of determining what his true purpose in life is. These are just two of what seems to be an endless amount of movies where Gyllenhaal portrays someone who acts far from normal. While Licklider was more than just the idea man for many inventions of the Digital Age, but it was his visions of the future technological advancements that he had for the human race that he is known. He clearly had a visionary mind, and I believe that Jake Gyllenhaal could accurately portray him in a
movie.