The Friendly Orange Glow
by Brian Dear · first published 2017
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Well-written history of the PLATO system at the University of Illinois, covering its games, early online culture, and university politics, from decades of interviews. Suits readers curious about pre-internet computing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Documents the story of the 1960s computer program and platform that marked the true beginning of cyberculture, revealing the role of PLATO ideas in inspiring countless technological innovations, from flat-panel wall TVs to multiplayer games.
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The Friendly Orange Glow : The Untold Story of the PLATO system and the dawn of cyberculture (2017) is a really interesting book about a system few people here would probably have heard of. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34373814-the-friendly-or...…
on “Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books?” ↗Brian Dear's The Friendly Orange Glow covers some of this history, as well as the fascinating PLATO system that grew out of it at the University of Illinois. The flat-screen plasma display developed for PLATO was Alan Kay's inspiration for…
on “The Engineered Student: On B. F. Skinner’s Teaching Machine” ↗…Internet Happened (2018) by Brian McCullough https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212134-how-the-interne... The 'Internet History Podcast' that was made while writing the book is also excellent. The Friendly Orange Glow (2017) by Brian Dear is also very good. He's also on HN. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34373814-the-friendly-or... Accidental Empires (1996) by Robert X Cringely is also pretty good: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires...
on “The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan” ↗Also "The Friendly Orange Glow" book (by Brian Dear) is outstanding.
on “1970s mainframe RPGs we can no longer play” ↗Good one. For an even earlier history, one should read 'The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture' by Brian Dear. The author spent decades researching and interviewing the pioneers. The PLATO system had chat rooms, instant messaging,…
on “Doug Engelbart’s 1968 demo” ↗…store. I must have been insufferable that summer, always talking about Boolean logic and perceptrons and Turing machines and NP-completeness. Answer to the second question but not the title one: "The Friendly Orange Glow" by Brian Dear is a well-written history of the PLATO computer system and, most importantly, of the community that grew around it.
on “Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life?” ↗Another good book is 'The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture' by Brian Dear. It dates (1960s, 1970s) even before the Licklider book I think. Read the blurb, sounds amazing the things they had back…
on “How to send an 'e mail' (1984) [video]” ↗"The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture" by Brian Dear. The little known history of the PLATO computer system.
on “Ask HN: Great Books from your 2021 Reading List?” ↗If you're looking for a longer PLATO read, check out Brian Dear's definitive book: The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System https://www.amazon.com/Friendly-Orange-Glow-Untold-Cybercult...
on “Plato: An educational computer system from the ’60s shaped the future” ↗Excellent book about the PLATO system, it goes into some of the game mechanics and social aspects - 'the friendly orange glow' by Brian Dear.
on “Everything We Know About 1970s Mainframe RPGs We Can No Longer Play” ↗For a moment I thought you might be the Brian Dear who wrote The Friendly Orange Glow (a fascinating history of the PLATO system).
on “Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail” ↗> Plato often gets overlooked, but it was highly influential. A well written book on it is: "The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture" Quoting myself from 2023, in a discussion of computer history books:<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35405385> >The Friendly…
on “Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)” ↗http://friendlyorangeglow.com/ was amazing! Made me wish I'd been around to experience it.
on “1970s mainframe RPGs we can no longer play” ↗…received in 1982). Amazing social network tech, not to mention computer learning which was it's core focus, in the '60s and '70s out of the mid-west. I am reading an excellent book on the history, "The Friendly Orange Glow."
on “Origins of the finger command (1990)” ↗If you're into mainframe systems, A Few Good Men From UNIVAC is pretty interesting. Also recommend The Friendly Orange Glow, which is about PLATO
on “Inventing the Atari 2600 (1983)” ↗