As the technologists depart
On Orville Wright, autobiographies, and why we need to get more writing out of digital pioneers before they are all gone
With the passing of Bill Atkinson, the Apple Computer technologist whose credits include the popular application of the hyperlink, the number of surviving technologists who can fairly be said to have witnessed the personal computer revolution first-hand has dwindled yet again.
■ There is a time in the history of every technology when important pioneers are still to be found -- until it is over, often with little fanfare. There was a time when pioneers of aviation were still around -- Orville Wright lived to see the invention of jet engines, and Charles Lindbergh saw a man land on the Moon. But then they were around no more.
■ Considering the profound consequences and inescapable extent of the spread of personal computing devices, society should be conscious of trying to capture the stories and the explanations of the people who launched the digital world. Some have written down their tales in autobiographies with names like "Idea Man" and "Source Code". These are good to have around, but autobiographies are often much better at myth-building than at giving readers durable advice.
■ Before they are all gone, it would be very good to capture more of the technology pioneers' explanations about how they made their choices along the way. Books about "how" and "why", more than just "who" and "when", give us context about the hastily-constructed digital universe we now occupy. But we are running out of time to get those written down. While there may be future David McCulloughs waiting to retrace their steps and reconstruct those decision trees, we ought not to wait for them and should instead nudge the surviving pioneers to document their work now, while they can still be found.
