Robert Taylor Dies at 85

Data

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Source http://thehackernews.com/2017/04/rip-robert-taylor-internet.html
Robert W Taylor, a computer scientist who was instrumental in creating the Internet as well as the modern personal computer, has died at the age of 85.

Mr. Taylor, who is best known as the mastermind of ARPAnet (precursor of the Internet), had Parkinson's disease and died on Thursday at his home in Woodside, California, his son Kurt Kurt Taylor told US media.
 

Regedit32

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Sad news Data.

Robert is in my mind like the Great Great Grandfather of the PC, given his support work on the Xerox PARC aka Alto in the early 70's. The first computer to use GUI.

His many research projects brought together some of the best minds of the day and the results we all benefit from Today. One of his students developed a simple Text editor, which later became Microsoft Word, but I cannot remember their name any more. I remember sitting in a University Lecture theatre doodling on my refil pad as this seemingly ancient guy stood there for 50 minutes reflecting on the past *lol*

Now I realize why you ought to listen more closely to your Elders :rolleyes:

I am curious what his thoughts would be on the status quo of the Internet today though. Sadly, with dementia he probably is blissfully unaware with how far out of control some aspects of it have become; although no one can say his dream of personal computers networked to shared the wonders of knowledge was not fulfilled.
 

Data

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I am curious what his thoughts would be on the status quo of the Internet today though. Sadly, with dementia he probably is blissfully unaware with how far out of control some aspects of it have become;

Well, If his toughs would be anything like Berners-Lee then we know for sure he would be equally disgusted at many of the aspects that have gotten out of control.
So best to think that he was blissfully unaware like you say ;)
 
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The article says Parkinsons disease which is not dementia although he certainly would not have been totally clear minded.
 

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Yes Tim,

The articles Data linked to both refer to Parkinson's disease.

The article I read though quoted the son as referring to Dementia.


I look after my mother who suffers from Dementia, and whilst Parkinson's Disease is often depicted as someone losing control of their muscular activity [ i.e. shaking uncontrollably, or unable to grip common items ], the reality for suffers of Parkinson's is they commonly degrade to either Parkinson's Dementia Disease, or the Lewy Bodies Disease [ another form of Dementia ].

It's possible the early article I read has misquoted the son - name me a news source 100% accurate.
 
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