The Computer Connection Dov Greenbaum and Mark Gerstein (February 26, 2015) Science 347 (6225), 956
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INSIGHTS | BOOKS COMPUTER SCIENCE In some instances, the teams Isaacson describes seem almost straight out of Hol- The Innovators lywood casting, featuring members with How a Group of Hackers, The computer similar expertise but with very diverse Geniuses, and Geeks Created dispositions and outlooks. For example, the Digital Revolution the team that founded Intel—electronics Walter Isaacson connection mavens Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Simon and Schuster, 2014. Andy Grove—had very different person- 559 pp. A closer look at the alities: Noyce provided the strategic vision, collaborations that fueled Moore was detail-oriented and couldn’t delegate responsibility, and Grove was the early Google to exploit Stanford’s bandwidth the digital revolution goal-oriented tactician. and a budding Microsoft to take advantage Successful collaborations can still exist of Harvard’s military-funded computing fa- By Dov Greenbaum1,2* and Mark Gerstein2 when individuals dislike or even hate each cilities. The generous sharing of proprietary other. Isaacson uses the contentious relation- innovations by Xerox, AT&T, and other estab- nspired by successes of the late 20th ship of Larry Roberts and Bob Taylor, who lished companies also helped fledgling tech century—including large-scale genomics worked together to create the global Internet companies such as Apple, Texas Instruments, projects and deep-space missions—ev- precursor, ARPANET, and the infamous feud and Fairchild to freely build upon earlier eryone in science today seems to extol between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates—who lib- accomplishments. the virtues of multidisciplinary team- erally misappropriated work from each other Isaacson does more than just describe the work. It’s now de rigeur, for example, and from Alan Kay—to illustrate this point. individuals who were involved in the cre- Ito unite teams of chemists, clinicians, and Isaacson even includes teams not con- ation of computing and the Internet. He also geneticists for a big translational research sciously working together in his analysis, elaborates on many technical innovations project. But how do teams really work? And, demonstrating how one individual can pro- in a clear and accessible fashion, allowing a more to the point, how do you build teams vide the vision and the other the execution. broad readership access to the inner work- on July 31, 2016 that function successfully? For instance, although they never worked ings of the Difference Engine, integrated cir- In his deftly researched and presented together, computer scientist Tim Berners- cuit, and PageRank algorithm, among others. book The Innovators: How a Group of Lee provided the vision and conceptual Nonetheless, there are some important con- Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the underpinning of the Web, while software tributions missing from his story. Despite the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson tells the engineer Marc Andreessen wrote the first text lavished on Linux, for example, there’s story of the people who invented the com- user-friendly browser. little discussion of the early history of its pre- puter and the Internet. Although his- cursor, Unix. There is also a dearth of torical in nature, the book provides information on the initial founding insights into the nature of teamwork of IBM. These notable omissions not- that are directly applicable to the sci- withstanding, one is left with an in- ence of today. tuitive understanding of the history Throughout the narrative, Isaac- of computing from mechanical cal- http://science.sciencemag.org/ son makes a compelling case that the culators to electronic computers and, most transformational advances in eventually, to software algorithms. computing have come from combi- From complementary duos and nations of people with complemen- collegial co-workers to synergistic tary skillsets. From the collaboration rivals and unaware collaborators, of theoretical physicist John Bardeen one can find elements of Isaacson’s and experimental physicist Walter teams in many contemporary big- Downloaded from Brattain, who invented the first tran- science endeavors. However, recent sistor, to that of programmer Grace shifts away from traditional, institu- Hopper and hardware specialist Betty Snyder and Glen Beck program ENIAC, the first general-purpose tionalized science may moot many Howard Aiken, who developed the electronic, digital computer. of Isaacson’s take-home lessons. The first computer that automatically ex- phenomenon known as “citizen sci- ecuted long computations, Isaacson main- Successful teams were frequently embed- ence” harnesses large groups of disparate, tains that “most of the great innovations ded in larger institutional structures that unconnected individuals with even more of the digital age sprang from an interplay promoted disruptive innovation by forcing diverse personalities and expertise, who lack of creative individuals.” He singles out solo multidisciplinary collaborations. Isaacson the structure and incentives of large institu- players, like John Atanasoff—who is often credits Vannevar Bush, the director of the tions and often even lack classical scientific credited with producing the first electronic, U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Devel- training. Citizen science initiatives are never- digital computer—as less impactful, arguing opment during World War II, with establish- theless successfully coalescing under unified that “innovation comes from teams more ing a successful framework for collaboration goals and have led to productive collabora- often than from the lightbulb moments of across academic, military, and industrial tions in fields including structural biology lone geniuses.” institutions. Perhaps unintentionally, these and astronomy (1, 2). institutions may have further facilitated innovation by giving many of Isaacson’s REFERENCES AND NOTES 1Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging 1. Foldit: Solve Puzzles for Science; http://fold.it. Technologies, Radzyner Law School, Interdisciplinary Center, protagonists a wide berth. For example, a 2. Galaxy Zoo; http://galaxyzoo.org. Herzliya, Israel. 2Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, pervasive laissez-faire attitude regarding the Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. use of computing infrastructure allowed an 10.1126/science.aaa0848 PHOTO ARMY U.S. WIKICOMMONS/ PHOTO: 956 27 FEBRUARY 2015 • VOL 347 ISSUE 6225 sciencemag.org SCIENCE Published by AAAS The computer connection Dov Greenbaum and Mark Gerstein (February 26, 2015) Science 347 (6225), 956. [doi: 10.1126/science.aaa0848] Editor's Summary This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. 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