Innocent in Palo Alto

297 Pages·2012·21.01 MB·English

by  Giuliana Levendel

From the Diary of aTl1_inlz Tanlz Dweller
Giuliana Lavemlel
Innocent in Palo Alto
From The Diary Of A Think Tank Dweller
Giuliana Lavendel
Copyright 201 1
ii
Contents
Introduction vii
1 The View from the Top 1
1.1 HELLOAGAIN,MR.GUTENBERG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 HEGAVETHEWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 VIVACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 THEFOUNDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 A PR0MISE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Tremblor at PARC 7
2.1 THE EARTH WAS SHAKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 EARTHQUAKESCANBEPERSONAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 MACHIAVELLIAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 PORTRAIT GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Perspective 11
3.1 A NATONAL RESOURCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2 INSIDER’SVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3 THE BOCA EXTRAVAGANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.4 THENAKEDTRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4 Microcosm 15
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iv CONTENTS
4.1 CULTURE SHOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 LOOKANDFEEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.3 ELITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.4 THEATRE: THE BEAN BAG ROOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.5 DIVERSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.6 A MYSTERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5 Symbols and Legends 21
5.1 THEINNERCIRCLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.2 ANOTHER CULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.3 SKIRMISHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6 End of Pax Electronica? 25
6.1 KIDNAPPED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.2 THEMIDASTOUCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.3 NORISKALLOWED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.4 MOREWOE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
7 Turmoil on the Hill 31
7.1 ADVENTURES AND ENCOUNTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.2 SOUL SEARCHING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.3 AFROGSTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.4 MILESTONES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8 Passages 37
8.1 GLOBALISCOMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
8.2 CENTAUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
8.3 MEGRIMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
8.4 CHARACTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
CONTENTS v
9 The New Labyrinth 43
9.1 FINDING THE WAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
9.2 PARC’S FOUNDER AS NOVEL THESEUS . . . . . . . . . . . 43
9.3 THE FUMBLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
9.4 METAPHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
10 Finale 47
10.1 ALITTLEBLACKNOTEBOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
10.2 DRESSCODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
10.3 THEHOLYWRIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
10.4 PHONE CALL: MEMORABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
10.5 TROJANHORSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
10.6 BUTWHYISSHECRYING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Acknowledgments 53
Appendix: Monday Teller, 1990 - 1999 55

Introduction
This is not a history of PARC. It is a random batch of vignettes, which brokeloose
from my diary and my memory.
This is the way it was, inside.
Enter Innocent
It was the luck of the draw. I opened the door, and there was the job, waiting to be
discovered. In those pioneer days (1970), we were throwing into the supercharged
air questions which meant: Are you one of us? Will you help me? Will we rate a
chance, with these tools we have?
The library is a main core tool, but in the beginnning we could only offer some
dusty copies of Engineering Index. The computer was off limits, until a young
man who would one day be nicknamed “Supreme Engineer” bought me accesss
to the Dialog system for a couple of months. “You deserve this,” he said, “and
besides, I wanted to check if those computer people are as good as they think they
are.”
I came to visit, as a neighbor, the wife of a rocket scientist designing missiles
in the Stanford Industrial Park. Before long I was hopping in daily to help out,
pursued by eager patrons waving penciled notes with requests: On the magnetic
susceptibility of metals? Computer editing advantages? What’s new in raster
scanning and why was Ada famous? And what did Turing think? What about the
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viii INTRODUCTION
kinship between high level programming and the complex constructs embroidery
can produce? I can still demo the ornate Palestrina stitch I learned from the nuns
in kindergarten.
I “designed” the TIC (Technical Information Center) at PARC following the
notions I had developed, also observing the scientists’ behavior and their demands
and responses. I planned an elite, unusual operation, totally dedicated to customer
service, and kept our doors open 24/7. We did not mind being called at home even
on a Sunday afternoon. As Iremember, this privilege was not abused.
My profile in Who’s Who in America, ca. 1995, refers to me as “Information
Research Executive.” We communicated using all means available to us, includ
ing satellites, the Xerox Docutech, and writing fast. Our Monday Teller went
around the world with our logo, developed in-house and covered by copyright to
protect...the INNOCENT.