computer science

What the Dormouse Said

What the Dormouse Said is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand What the Dormouse Said rather than just read about it. In short: What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, is a 2005 non-fiction book by John Markoff. The book details the history of the personal computer, closely tying the ideologies of the collaboration-driven, World War II-era defense research community to the embryonic cooperatives and psychedelics use of the American counterculture of the 1960s.

Key takeaways

What the Dormouse Said belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect What the Dormouse Said to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of What the Dormouse Said from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, is a 2005 non-fiction book by John Markoff. The book details the history of the personal computer, closely tying the ideologies of the collaboration-driven, World War II-era defense research community to the embryonic cooperatives and psychedelics use of the American counterculture of the 1960s. The book follows the history chronologically, beginning with Vannevar Bush's description of his inspirational memex machine in his 1945 article "As We May Think". Markoff describes many of the people and organizations who helped develop the ideology and technology of the computer as we know it today, including Doug Engelbart, Xerox PARC, Apple Computer and Microsoft Windows. Markoff argues for a direct connection between the counterculture of the late 1950s and 1960s (using examples such as Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California) and the development of the computer industry. The book also discusses the early split between the idea of commercial and free-supply computing. The main part of the title, "What the Dormouse Said," is a reference to a line at the end of the 1967 Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit": "Remember what the dormouse said: feed your head." which is itself a reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

See also Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution Midpeninsula Free University Homebrew Computer Club The Soul of a New Machine Microserfs Steve Jobs Fire in the Valley

References

External links Life Outside the Mainframe (review from Peacework)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with What the Dormouse Said

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what What the Dormouse Said claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to What the Dormouse Said before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about What the Dormouse Said ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of What the Dormouse Said

In research: What the Dormouse Said appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses What the Dormouse Said in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: What the Dormouse Said is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2005 non-fiction books, Books about California, Computer book stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for What the Dormouse Said outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study What the Dormouse Said in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what What the Dormouse Said means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain What the Dormouse Said out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is What the Dormouse Said in simple terms?

Why does What the Dormouse Said matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study What the Dormouse Said?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on What the Dormouse Said.