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Now, those of you who decided to join my treasure hunt and spiritual path in 2007 may remember my coming out as a human being into the public arena. I was still in fear and only peaked my head out into the web on the internet to throw out a few crumbs of my own inner knowledge to see if my friends would approach me the "MEN IN BLACK".I then decided I wanted to share my story that was totally about TOM the Commander and me meeting him whom I tried to share in Roswell, New Mexico but could not get the words out. They just would not form. I was still in my own prison.
Writers Journey
There is a story inside all of us that wants to come out. I am sure that I am here to share in the awakening process and the closest work and words I can come up for myself being that I am not trained in the arts of academics with a Ph.D. in any discipline is that I am a natural shaman and mystic. I was told all my life that I had abilities as a different child with gifts to see such things as angels. I had invisible playmates as a child, which I now know, were simply my guides or extraterrestrials. Some were in physical manifestations on earth from one level while others were from another level. Then there are those who could teach me as holograms. It has taken me literally searching and sifting through books at libraries for years before there was a web and internet. Now, I find myself being one of the creators of content in the new web of life.
We are creating our own world on this planet in not only the physical but also the astral realms. Some talented people are now going to try to own the world of virtual reality and the Internet. While I support art, culture, education, science, technology, mysticism, and Folklife, I find that that I am and what I am is outside of all of these academic disciplines.
I am sure that I am not into dogmas or the old worlds of the past that are all still listed as paganism, or religions that seem to include all that humans have created on earth. Therefore, I am caught in a difficult situation. I share love and light of extraterrestrial beings whom I believe are to assist in raising our awareness of all. Those above whom I have grown to trust inside my own essence as my guides and as spiritual teachers into other realms and dimensions have been good to me. They have never hurt me or steered me wrong. T
hey explain to me those who have come before to guide those on earth in the various periods that we call time. I am now faced with sharing that which I believe I was put on earth to share. I know that I will gain some friends and lose others and this is okay with me for as we grow we leave some behind. I now realize that we are all about the journey or the quest for the inner light. Please share with me your essence and participate with me in the future. We do not have to give all for all give some while some give all. We can each make our lives a part of the future by combining efforts. While I shall support some friends by purchasing and reviewing their books online and leaving the review on Amazon.com, I shall simply get to know others on the websites that I shall provide for those above.
ASCENSION CENTER ORGANZATION
The present calling for me is to create the new website named ASCENSION CENTER ORGANIZATION that I have registered as a domain on GODADDY.com. I shall transfer the name to BLUEHOST.com today so that I may work on it on WORDPRESS. I welcome all those who have felt the love and light to share their work, words, and worlds with others such as myself. There are various websites being created to share by others as well as me.
The future will have changes and soon our knowledge will have doubled and the Ascension Center Organization will be required for those who desire to share in a mutual perception. Tom my husband has written over 5 books in the last 3 years and I have only 1 that is still being edited by me but the rough draft is assigned an ISBN and available on Amazon and Lulu called "THE PACKAGE" under his name as author Thomas R. Morris. I wish that Tom would share his experiences in space but he does not feel obligated to share that which will not be understood by others on earth. While Tom has grown impatient with me as his editor, I still seem to find that those above drive my passion and energy toward their own book editing called the ASCENSION CENTER.
TJ SHARED INFORMATION FROM READERS:
1) Your “ET” perspective is what the earthly readers really need.
You are looking down from a level that us earthly types are trying to understand.
We are looking up, mostly frustrated in our ignorance. 2) My human frailties would probably trap me into a persona bearing my name.That would cause me to deviate from truth. 3) If I were to write something for a multiplicity of readers,I would lose the element of love in my writings. I am not strong enough to go beyond one-on-one communication and maintain a true feeling of love. It would become just a bunch of words, strung together with logic, but without emotion and compassion. 4) On the other hand, you have been successfully handling 2) and 3) (above). The most important issue is love and light beyond this earthly life. The possibilities, the potential, and the dangers are staggering. And horrific, but probably far from the worst, is to be trapped at this level – to be assigned a “do-over”.
DO OVERS IN LIFE ON EARTH
Yuck.
Most earthlings have their head in the sand (the polite version of what I really think – naughty me).They are like the Biblical dog “who returns to his own vomit”. I am one of those dogs, and I do not like it.
I feel that I was badly prepared for this earthly life. Maybe I was sent here to teach me a thing or two ?? – to pull my head out of wherever I was keeping it !! I do not want to do this poorly next time around, where ever that may be.
No thanks, no “do-over”, although I might not have a choice. I suppose that I could be sent back as an unwitting teacher, that would be hard to protest, as I expect that I would feel duty-bound. I have no real idea of what the immediate afterlife would be like .I am somehow convinced that it is of utmost importance to have LOVE and LIGHT hammered into the very fabric of one’s spirit. I speculate that this is the only means of evading negative forces that would intercept a spirit, by whatever means: intimidation, force, coercion, deception, blackmail and enticement come to mind.
This would be the only means of attracting the attentions of the positive forces –those who would be able to provide a true opportunity for uplift.(And who knows what happened to those who remain un-recruited.) LOVE and LIGHT – it is the only way to spiritually ascend.
Us earthlings are a sad lot – we have a long way to go – a lot to learn. Start now and do not deviate.
The more we learn now, the better we will be equipped to handle the next step. LOVE and LIGHT – the only way to live now – the only way to spiritual ascension. LOVE and LIGHT – TJ, it is easy to see that you know it. You see beyond this earthly life. And still, you do bring LOVE and LIGHT to others in this earthly predicament. But, you yourself are sharing in this predicament. There is a precedence for this, one which we tend to forget and fail to appreciate. And we never live up to the example set for us all.
We have to make the most of LOVE and LIGHT in this life, it is part of our experience, our development. And maybe a point, the importance of which we overlook -our expression of LOVE and LIGHT is an up building example for others. Teaching a part of our expression of LOVE and LIGHT – an active and deliberate part of our expression of LOVE and LIGHT.I speculate that we all must shoulder some responsibility for our fellow earthlings by developing into teachers of LOVE and LIGHT.
In fact, I think that it is of tremendous importance in spiritual ascension.
This is your role. Your advantage is the “ET” component of your being. And a special disadvantage at the same time.
We all do have one powerful asset, our faith in a “GOD” of LOVE and LIGHT.
Now, I really am all typed-out. Except to say – more on GOD – another time.
LOVE and LIGHT to you and your husband. AL
------------------------------------Hi Theresa,
I am still busy with my work, because, to quote a pen pal of mine “it’s all about the money”.
The work that I am doing is electronic circuit design.
These circuits are used inside commercial rotisserie ovens, and in anti-theft turnstiles (retail food stores).Nothing that I judge to be morally wrong, such as military equipment, gambling equipment and video games – to name a few. As I mentioned previously, I was never overly fond of this earthly life. My wife was the one thing that gave me a sense of purpose and a sense of security. When she walked out, my safety bubble was shattered – I was devastated.
Depression set in and it took for sure 3 years before I got my medications (SSNRI) properly adjusted. I found this earthly life to be an empty, callous, uncaring horror.
In addition, I had an awful time accepting any human contact. During this period, I absolutely had to stay away from any mention of anything paranormal (books, web site, TV shows).These things drew me further away from this earthly existence – unseated me. The only thing that kept me here was a combination of love for my wife and the horror of what she had done. I have realized that I have never been a willing participant in this world. I have had recurring dreams of driving around town, unable to remember where I live. Another recurring dreams is not being able to find where my car is parked – not having a clue where I left it. Yet another is of being a student and suddenly realizing that the school term is half-over and I do not know when or where classes are held.
Absent from my own life.
The opportunity that ET contacts (on the level that you have) would certainly be a tremendous distraction from the earthly life.
All else would pale, in comparison.
In addition, it must consume a major amount of your emotional energy. I guess that it must be – well, all pervasive in your (earthly) life.
Greed and jealousy of your earthly beings in your life trying to bring you down. For sure – big time. It is a difficult situation when the problem is with beings in your earthly family. There is a lifetime of emotional “baggage” with family members. In addition, some family members can never get over it.
Therefore, in times of stress – it all comes out. In addition, yes, oh yes – it can easily drag a person down. In addition, this happens whether or not those people who are responsible for this, Really, have any understanding of the effects of their behavior.
That is the problem – they really do not understand.
Love is the key ingredient in enlightenment.
It allows us to empathize with other beings, to increase our understanding of these beings and to be able to show compassion towards them, possibly to assist them and at the very least, to appreciate them for their positive qualities.
Love can breed love, both in one’s self and in others.
Love can return love – certainly not guaranteed, it is beyond some people.
We cannot isolate ourselves from those who do not deal in love – but we can distance ourselves from them.
Therefore, in this world, earthly or otherwise, we must build up a good store of love.
People are social beings, for the most part. They tend to cluster based on something that is mutually attractive.
In addition, one of those things includes a true heart – a heart with principled love – agape.
AGAPE = LOVE
Associating with such people is mutually up building – something very powerful. Associating with entities that are ascended beyond our own level – that is difficult for me to imagine. Assuming that the relationship is one of mentor-student and the goal is spiritual uplift (ascension),In addition, that the curriculum is based on love and truth (light) – then, well, mmm, I am unable to say.
My assumptions are based on my current level of awareness, Moreover, I assess my awareness as not sufficient to make realistic assumptions,
Let alone give any enlightening conjecture. I can only hope that such a relationship is heavy on truth, principled-love and spiritual ascension. Do not feel embarrassed about all the things that you have confided in me. I have a strong conviction that the way of truth and light is essential, both for life on this earth and beyond. We must get it right here or the chances for spiritual ascension diminish.
The Christian precepts, as found in the Bible, are a very good prescription for an earthly life of love and truth –An earthly life with a path to spiritual ascension.
And as an adherent to the Christian way,
I can do nothing other than give you all the encouragement that I can –to try to share with you, in camaraderie, a spirit of love. To say “I appreciate who you are. I admire what you stand for.” To say “I know that you believe in the way of love and truth”. To say “I do not judge you. None of us is perfect, especially me.” So, never feel embarrassed, I am here to listen, I am here to encourage. Just a bit of background –I have been attending Jehovah Witness meetings and Bible studies, for approximately 3 years.
This participation has given me a much greater appreciation of the Christian way.
I appreciate the members of the congregation – the association is certainly up-building (uplifting) .The organization is another matter, but I have learned not to let it get to me – usually.
I did a couple of months of “door-to-door” last year, loved it. In addition “street work” as well, that was my favorite. I was disqualified from these activities – but no big deal, I got over it, keeps things interesting. These days - a kind word and a smile, hold a door open, little things – try to kindle a small spark. All this does not mean that I am, in any way or to any degree, letting go of my “ET”-oriented point-of-view. On the contrary, the more that I learn about the Christian way, the more it actually fits into the “ET” reality (as I perceive it).Christianity is one of the means by which we can approach a spiritual ascension.
Religions were given to us from an “ET” source. The unknown story of all this will turn out to be extremely interesting.
I will expound on this a bit more another day. For now, I am all typed-out.
So please, keep in LOVE and LIGHT – I’m counting on you.56 earth years – they seem to have flown by so quickly, so many of them wasted. Maybe not wasted, let’s say unproductive. Past lives ?Honestly – I do not have any indication of past lives. Certainly nothing comes to mind. I would be looking for something anomalous – something not-quite-right. And I have not been able to put my finger on anything.
I remember seeing a WW2-era Lancaster bomber at an aviation museum and I was mesmerized by it.
Something leaking into the current consciousness from the past ?Or, just a current understanding of the terror and death that men experienced flying these flimsy things ?Probably just an understanding. So, I have to careful - not let whimsical notions pass for truth. As for my belief in past lives – I would say yes, definitely, for sure. But – what are past lives ?It is easy to say that they are incarnations in human form somewhere in the historical past. There are anecdotes supporting this idea (mainly from India, mmm, no coincidence, I suppose).But, it sounds almost too simple. To explore this topic, I see two issues:1) Of what consequence might past lives be ?2) What are the non-concrete/non-human-body components of the human individual ?The questions are backwards, we have to start with the second question.
So, what are we ?To me, it’s pretty well a given that we have a component that is not in this concrete world.
Some people would call it a “soul”, whatever they mean by that.I would venture to say that it is some combination of:- a sense of self-awareness- a free will- wisdom, or at least knowledge- some (unknown) type of enabling (and for lack of a better word) energy (maybe life force).But, there is a twist in this – I did not include “individuality” in the list.
In this earthly life, we feel that we are individuals. True – but, we do have various group identities (family, national, religious, middle-class – to mention a few)and these shared identities make us all less distinct. Are there similar relationships amongst our “non-concrete” component parts ?You referred to me as “soul group mate”
How closely does a “soul group” bind us – both in this world and in the “world of the soul” ?
Do we even have an individual “non-concrete” part ?
(Maybe, in the “soul world” we are more like the Borg in Star Trek Voyager).The “sense of self-awareness” and “free-will” would be constrained by the nature of our “soul” (spirit part).In fact, by its entire “spirit part” environment and all other interacting “spirit parts”
I cannot say much about “enabling energy” or “life force”, at this time.
But what about knowledge and wisdom ?What access does our “spirit part” have to knowledge and wisdom ?And these are probably quite diverse, maybe including (but certainly not limited to):- universal concepts.- experience of past human lives.- experience of past non-human lives.- past lives of other individuals (human and non-human).- teachings in the “spirit part” world.- group experiences.All of which defines (at least partially) our role in life (both here and wherever).And “of what consequence are past lives” should be much clearer.
Wow – what a pile of speculation !Well – here is more – on another subject. As far as “memories of my mystical experience” goes – well, that is not so straightforward. Yes – these memories have definitely piqued my conscious interest in things not seen.
Subconscious memories ? They probably contribute. But here is the interesting part – what was the psychological impact that was intended by the “visitors” ?
Was a conscious recollection intended ?Was the conscious recollection carefully managed ?(It might appear to be “sloppiness” on the part of the “visitors”, but then again, maybe that was exactly intended impression).Another interesting aspect was the unspoken verbal communication:- “You failed the test”. What (says me) ? “You did not pass the test”.A very short conversation (in unspoken words) with “somebody” else.- (waves of disappointment), (anger at myself for disappointment) “after what they did to me”.An emotion (anger) and a verbal thought (after what . . .) that seemed “jammed in” from an external source, a curious choice of words, since I had (and still do not have) any memory of “what they did to me”.
Were these from two separate entities, perhaps having different roles in the incident/operation ?Or was it a single entity, masquerading as a second entity, in order to put in place a bit of psychological protection.
The protection being anger in response to involuntary participation, in place of a positive association between an indignity and love.
Another change of subject – maybe I somewhat understand your husband’s anger and his doubts over your love. Many people are not good patients – being limited by poor health is a tough burden. And heart conditions and high blood pressure are not things that have just “sprung-up” just recently. These things have probably been dragging-down your husband for some time. You are the care-giver, and being the spouse, you are also
ACE FOLKLIFE
the source of love and affection. And if your work takes you away from your husband, I am sure that he feels alone.
Alone, facing declining health and eventually death. While you continue on with your normal activities, with your life. And over the years, your involvement with your spiritual connection could have come between you and your husband. And while in good health, and busy with his own work, the situation was bearable.
But now, any doubts, suspicions and disillusionments that were denied (in order to maintain the illusion of a satisfactory relationship (and believe me, I see now that I did this during my marriage))now surface due to feelings of helplessness and more importantly a feeling unfulfilled love. The sense of vulnerability is as bad as any depression, maybe worse. Your love, affection and closeness are more important than ever, and are becoming more so. Maybe ask your spiritual contact for some time to devote to your husband –so that you can show the love, affection and closeness to your husband. Please, do not let him leave this life without your love.
And I do not know that this is even possible or appropriate, but in some way communicate to your spiritual contact your need for guidance, or at least encouragement in this matter.
TJ – I do not know you and you husband nearly well enough to say much (although it does not seem to stop me).What I have said above is a mix of my own experiences with the death of both my parents and the departure of my wife – all of which hurt and in all of which I made bad mistakes. You have the earthly opportunity to show love to somebody who depends dearly on you for your love. TJ – you and your husband are in my prayers.
With LOVE and LIGHT,
Your long-winded pen pal, All.
P.S. “Shan’t” is a valid word, although I must admit that I had to look it up to be sure. This makes me reflect on how limited man’s consciousness is .And it makes me fear mankind’s collective consciousness (or at least my perception of it) –I do not want to be any part of it, yet I am, if only because of a shared life on earth.
From TJ = A friend in time is like a stitch in time, saves nine. We are all here to share in this consciousness we call life.
Please assist our angels of ascension age to guide our spirits to the International Spirit Guide and to help us all raise our spirits as Lightworkers by tuning into our ring of spiritual kindness to share in our shift and uplifting of the entire planet's spiritual nature and essence. Be a good example and light one candle on your alter each night and say a little prayer for us all in the Ascension Center and all our angels above and on earth assisting us in this time of the great awakening and the change to the Ascension Age.
Love and Light. TJ.
Alien extraterrestrials on earth are not so different than other humanoid beings of the humankind. We are born with the basics the same as all other humanoids with a head, torso, two arms, and two legs. We all have the same brain and nervous system. We usually are born to parents and a family unit.
How does one who has had various experiences that are not considered the normal for the general critical mass on earth deal with the difference?
One might ask how can one confess to having different experiences in life from others?
Many of my readers may want to know how I can become a writer of paranormal experiences?
My own earth mother wonders this about me herself. Mother would prefer me to simply write fiction as she says I will get more readers and buyers of my books.
First one has to realize that I was born on earth the same as everyone else. I am considered human as far as being normal like everyone else on earth.
I had not planned on writing an in depth report on the topic of my own history here on this planet but basically it appears that my mother was right when she said,
“We are all the authors of our own life stories.” Tess Thomas, January 2011. Mother now has s short version of her life in a book from her own point of view and being her daughter, I can see it is very sketchy. It leaves a lot to be desired by one who knew her all her life. But alas it is her own story. No one else can interfere with her book which she is constantly reminding me. I was allowed to simply spell check, add the content and obtain an ISBN and publish the second edition. To me it appeared it needed a lot of work from the first edition. This allowed me once again to gain a new perspective on life.
My mother who is 78 years old born on December 5, 1932 has seen a lot of life. She was born at a very tough time in America when people had to still have the pioneer spirit for making it in this world. Mother sees her life with her on blinders on because that was the only way she could observe her life. We all have filters inside our own minds, scatomas, and as far as our peripheral vision, it would seem we all have on blinders for seeing only the front of us and not seeing ourselves from behind or from any other point of view.
This is what I would like to explain to my readers who are sharing in my life story. Each of you are important to me because without my readers, I would have no reason to write this story which allows me to explore, learn, and grow in ways that I can interpret from outside of my own self. I have never been one to journal although I was taught from the time I was born. My mother always made sure I got a new diary ever year.
My life on earth is just like everyone else’s in the broadest since of the term. We are all born with the basic humanoid characteristics. We have a head, torso, two arms, and two legs. We have a brain, heart, nervous system, and all that our physical body requires to exist.
What I have learned to point out to myself and others is that we must realize that we all have a body a mind, and a spirit. We are not reminded enough in this world that we need all three to survive. We are body-mind-spirit humanoid sentient intelligent beings.
We must all teach ourselves how to understand the skill of being a member among the humankind. We can hope that we have parents, teachers, guides along the way to assist us in the three basic categories on earth.
There are some major differences now on earth than life in the past on earth. In the past we had various empires around the world. I will use an example.
The Incas created a large empire that was a theocracy where only family members could rule. The religion supported the ruling family as the descendants of the sun god therefore worshipped the king. The King would send out his armies to obtain wealth as conquered territories.
The government was an early form of socialism with those who were working for the empire were taken care of, as well as, the young and the elderly and sick were taken care of. At feast there was always free food and beer.
The Inca rulers had a strategy of unification and allowed a certain diplomacy among the conquered peoples. Those who were conquered were allowed to maintain their own customs and languages as long as they were loyal to the new king. They did impose a single official language which was Quecha. The King had schools to teach orally the Incan ways and they built thousands of miles of roads and bridges to connect all the conquered territories and connect the Capital of Cuzco to the conquered cities. The ancients had their own calendar system to tell the people how to plant, live, and expect those to come from above which we now regard as the “Sky People.” Their history was allowed to be shared and kept by oral tradition. From time to time, all over the world, there were groups of humanoids that were taken to other worlds.
This way of life is not so different than our new world that includes the Internet online which is another form of “Sky People.” These too can take entire groups away from the present land and take then into the sky as in “Taken Up!”
For your information, I would like you to read something about Oracle which is used by Java on your computer. This is a language that most everyone is using and does not think about how it is incorporated into your own language. Nevertheless, it is part of our world and is part of my world to you and we do not even see it. There are some prompts mentioned to go to their site for more information but they will be turned off in this article but still needs to show there are ways to get to more information when needed.
First Your Privacy and Anonymity
During download, installation or automatic updates of the Java Runtime Environment (hereafter referred to as "Java"), Oracle does not collect or track any personally identifiable information (such as names or email addresses) about you, or associate your online behavior with personally identifiable data.
We do collect a limited set of information that is not personally identifiable. It is anonymous technical data commonly known as "telemetry." For an element-by-element description of what is collected and how it helps us, details are available.
We Collect this Data to Measure Our Own Performance, Diagnose Problems, and Improve Your Experience
The purpose of the telemetry transmitted to Oracle during the Java installation and auto-update process is to find any technical problems or anomalies that occur, so we can understand and correct them. It's similar to a car mechanic's practice of plugging into your engine's diagnostic port to identify performance issues (not to identify the car's owner!). The issues we identify could be anything from a missing file or compatibility with a new browser release to a server overload. But your privacy and anonymity are not compromised by our collecting this telemetry — but it's what helps to improve the experience to try to ensure that you will always have a successful experience.
If You Want to Know More
For a more detailed explanation about Oracle's performance data collection, please click here.
If You Would Like to Disable the Collection of this Data
If you wish to disable the collection and transmission of the telemetry during your initial Java download and installation, please download the full 'offline installer' version, and make sure you are not connected to the Internet when you install it.
Once you download and install Java, the software's automatic update feature will continue to send telemetry to Oracle with each subsequent automatic update. However, you can disable automatic updates by following the directions on the FAQ.
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Oracle
When we create a model of life on earth for ourselves, we want to use information and ideas to show others a visual way in their mind to perceive what we are wanting to do. We gather the information needed to understand the present situation we are trying to convey.
We sketch out in our own minds what we want to convey to others the information we see in our own minds eye, the ways we think about them, the colors, the photos in our minds, and other visuals we see or think inside our own minds. Then we gather the supplies we will need to create our models. This is a model for everyone who reads this article to see that that part of our human minds has not changed in thousands of years among humanoids on earth.
What is about to change in our lives is an upgrade from the time the Incas, Mayans, pueblo peoples, old religions of Christians, Jews, Hindis, Muslims and even those who practice forms of Buddhism, Zen, Bahai’ etc. There is also Dianetics, Eckankar, and other ways to believe in how one should think.
Here are some of our founding fathers who changed the intergalactic world.
J.C.R. Licklider And The Universal Network
It seems reasonable to envision, for a time 10 or 15 years hence, a 'thinking center' that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval.
The picture readily enlarges itself into a network of such centers, connected to one another by wide-band communication lines and to individual users by leased-wire services. In such a system, the speed of the computers would be balanced, and the cost of the gigantic memories and the sophisticated programs would be divided by the number of users.
- J.C.R. Licklider, Man-Computer Symbiosis, 1960.
Joseph Carl Robnett "Lick" Licklider created the idea of a universal network, spread his vision throughout the IPTO, and inspired his successors to realize his dream by inventing the ARPANET, which led to the Internet. He also developed the concepts that led to the idea of the Netizen.
Licklider started his scientific career as an experimental psychologist and professor at MIT interested in psychoacoustics, the study of how the human ear and brain convert air vibrations into the perception of sound. At MIT he also worked on the SAGE project as a human factors expert, which helped convince him of the great potential for human / computer interfaces.
Licklider's psychoacoustics research at MIT took an enormous amount of data analysis, requiring construction of several types of mathematical graphs based on the data collected by his research.
By the late 1950's he realized that his mathematical models of pitch perception had grown too complex to solve, even with the analog computers then available, and that he wouldn't be able to build a working mechanical model and advance the theory of psychoacoustics as he had wished.
In response to this revelation, in 1957 Licklider spent a day measuring the amount of time it took him to perform the individual tasks of collecting, sorting, and analyzing information, and then measured the time it took him to make decisions based on the data once it was collected. He discovered that the preparatory work took about 85% of the time, and that the decision could then be made almost immediately once the background data was available. This exercise had a powerful effect, and convinced him that one of the most useful long term contributions of computer technology would be to provide automated, extremely fast support systems for human decision making.
After Licklider was awarded tenure at MIT, he joined the company Bolt, Beranek & Newman to pursue his psychoacoustic research, where he was given access to one of the first minicomputers, a PDP-1 from Digital Equipment Company. The PDP-1 had comparable computing power to a mainframe computer of the time, at a cost of $250K, and only took up as much space of a couple of household refrigerators. Most importantly, instead of having to hand over punched cards to an operator and wait days for a printed response from the computer, Licklider could program the PDP-1 directly on paper tape, even stopping it and changing the tape when required, and view the results directly on a display screen in real-time. The PDP-1 was the first interactive computer.
Licklider quickly realized that minicomputers were getting to be powerful enough to support the type of automated library systems that Vannevar Bush had described. In 1959, Licklider wrote his first influential book, titled "Libraries of the Future", about how a computer could provide an automated library with simultaneous remote use by many different people through access to a common database.
Licklider also realized that interactive computers could provide more than a library function, and could provide great value as automated assistants.
He captured his ideas in a seminal paper in 1960 calledMan-Computer Symbiosis, in which he described a computer assistant that could answer questions, perform simulation modeling, graphically display results, and extrapolate solutions for new situations from past experience. Like Norbert Wiener, Licklider foresaw a close symbiotic relationship between computer and human, including sophisticated computerized interfaces with the brain.
Licklider also quickly appreciated the power of computer networks, and predicted the effects of technological distribution, describing how the spread of computers, programs, and information among a large number of computers connected by a network would create a system more powerful than could be built by any one organization.
In August, 1962, Licklider and Welden Clark elaborated on these ideas in the paper "On-Line Man Computer Communication", one of the first conceptions of the future Internet.
In October, 1962, Licklider was hired to be Director of the IPTO newly established by DARPA.
His mandate was to find a way to realize his networking vision and interconnect the DoD's main computers at the Pentagon, Cheyenne Mountain, and SAC HQ.
He started by writing a series of memos to the other members of the office describing the benefits of creation of a global, distributed network, addressing some memos to "Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network".
Licklider's vision of a universal network had a powerful influence on his successors at the IPTO, and provided the original intellectual push that led to the realization of the ARPANET only seven years later.
In 1964, Licklider left the IPTO and went to work at IBM. In 1968, he went back to MIT to lead the Project MAC project. In 1973, he returned again to lead the IPTO for two years. In 1979, he was one of the founding members of Infocom.
Netizen.
In April, 1968, Licklider and Robert Taylor published a ground-breaking paper The Computer as a Communication Device inScience and Technology, portraying the forthcoming universal network as more than a service to provide transmission of data, but also as a tool whose value came from the generation of new information through interaction with its users. In other words, the old golden rule applied to an as yet unbuilt network world, where each netizen contributes more to the virtual community than they receive, producing something more powerful and useful than anyone could create by themself.
Michael Hauben, a widely read Internet pioneer, encountered this spirit still going strong in his studies of online Internet communities in the 1990's, leading to his coinage of the term "net citizen" or "netizen". Newcomers to the Internet usually experience the same benefit of participating in a larger virtual world, and adopt the spirit of the netizen as it is handed down the generations. It cannot be a coincidence that so many Internet technologies are built specifically to leverage the power of community information sharing, such as the Usenet newsgroups, IRC, MUD's, and mailing lists. The concept of the netizen is also the foundation for the motivation of netiquette.
Vannevar Bush and Memex
Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.
- Vannevar Bush; As We May Think; Atlantic Monthly; July 1945.
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