Computer History Museum - Timeline of Computer History

A Little Bit More History - Primary Sources

• John Backus
• John McCarthy
• Alan Kay
• Edsger Dijkstra
• Michael Rabin
• Donald Knuth
• Robert Tarjan
• Leslie Lamport
• Stephen Cook
• Leonid Levin
• Frederick Brooks
• Burton Smith
• Daniel Hillis
• Edward Feigenbaum
• Douglas Lenat

Reflections

The Epilogue section of Dennis Shasha's and Cathy Lazere's book Out of Their Minds: The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists starts with a question - "What qualities of personality and intellect make great computer scientists?" (243). The authors go on to discuss all the similarities, differences, and peculiarities of each of the fifteen computer scientists they wrote about in their book. Some are very different, some are very similar, and some are truly very unique. As I finish this book, I would like to take note of all the qualities of personality and intellect I thought were emphasized in Out of Their Minds and reflect on them as key to success in science, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. Here is what I have so far:

• Technical and Curious: A love of the mathematics and the sciences is a necessity - one that cannot be overlooked.
• Industrious and Flexible: The ability to give it your all 110% of the time is extremely important in this discipline. Then, adapting to the always changing landscape of the discipline quickly becomes crucial in being successful, and after you've adapted, it is time to give your 110% again.
• Accurate and Presice: Attention to detail is key in many respects - from simply doing research to developing very large-scale systems with a vast amount of necessary detail.
• Focused and Goal-Oriented: Research and development can often be very frustrating. Therefore, an exceptional amount of dedication is required in order to succeed in science.
• Ethical and Aware: Technologies created by engineers and scientists always have alternate impacts on a lot of people. Considering the state of the society during technological development will help create a better and more peaceful world for all of us.
• Team Player: Engineers clearly never work alone. Understanding your team and keeping open lines of communication while staying on task will always make the job easier and more fun.
• Risk Taker: Science and engineering are all about taking risks, so a successful scientists will learn to do this quickly, as this is the process by which a lot of theses are formulated and a lot of cool, useful things are discovered. 
• Lucky: Being in the right place in the right time never hurt anyone. For some of the fifteen great computer scientists the book discussed, luck is exactly what made their careers.

As my personal career goes on, I will strive to enhance the skills I currently have and develop the skills I currently lack. This book and the stories of these great intellectuals has certainly helped inspire me to work hard and strive for more. Their stories, each unique and irreplaceable in the world of computing, worked to show the great successes that occurred in the past and what great challenges lie ahead of us in the future. The work of these people has had a lasting impact on our future, and that is evident even today in our daily lives, as most of us now regularly come into contact with computers every day. Furthermore, the future that the book lays out for us is a bright one, and I am curious to see what kinds of things we will come up with. One thing is surely true: our technological future will be spectacular. SIC ITUR AD ASTRA!