The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things by John Tinnell (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by:

• The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things by John Tinnell
• Andreas Hepp (bio)

The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things
By John Tinnell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023. Pp. 368.

Historical research has provided an important understanding of how and in which social and cultural contexts today’s digital media and their infrastructures have emerged. Two definitive contributions are Fred Turner’s From Counterculture to Cyber-culture (2006), which centers on the Whole Earth Network, and Patrick McCray’s The Visioneers (2013), which explores space colonies and nanotechnologies in close relation to the developmental contexts of the digital era. Both studies incorporate personal approaches along with a broader social and cultural contextualization. The Philosopher of Palo Alto by John Tinnell follows a similar approach, concentrating on Mark Weiser (1952–99), a computer scientist and chief technology officer at Xerox PARC. However, the publication is not merely a biography; as the subtitle suggests, it aims to capture the emergence of what we now refer to as the “internet of things,” with reference to Weiser. The investigation is based on Weiser’s files in the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University, his publications, his interviews with former colleagues, and their publications.

The structure of The Philosopher of Palo Alto travels along ten chapters in chronological order. Following an introduction, the book begins with a contextualizing chapter on Xerox PARC. This section includes more biographical details, describing Weiser and his arrival in Palo Alto. The narrative then shifts to a more contemplative perspective, delving into Weiser’s interest in a philosophical approach to “things,” specifically through the influence of Michael Polanyi and Martin Heidegger. The extent to which Weiser’s technological thinking is influenced by phenomenology and the philosophy of life is a recurring theme throughout the book. It becomes clear that Weiser had significantly different ideas about the internet of things than the MIT [End Page 1046] Media Lab headed by Nicholas Negroponte, to which he positioned himself in opposition. However, it also becomes apparent to what extent Weiser’s approach to ubiquitous computing (“ubicomp”) was shaped through his debates and confrontations with colleagues, particularly with Lucy Such-man, who also worked at Xerox PARC. For Weiser, ubicomp did not mean transforming the human environment into a smart assistant—Negroponte’s “talking butler”—but rather, an “entanglement” of computer technology with the “natural” tangible environment of humans in which computer technology fades into the background. Tinnell’s study illustrates the horizon of this mode of thought, but also the process of failure in which—supported by well-known media companies—Negroponte’s concept prevailed over Weiser’s. The fact that Weiser’s approach did not gain the visibility that the MIT Media Lab acquired was perhaps also due to his early death, which prevented him from synthesizing his thoughts in the book he had planned.

John Tinnell’s book is an excellent study, rich in material and very well narrated. It can certainly be read as an account of Weiser’s substantive work, and the publisher’s marketing presumably suggests such a reading. In my view, however, Tinnell’s study is more relevant in a different dimension, namely, the moments in which a more analytical thinking rises to the surface. In such sections, the book offers an analysis of how the ideas of ubicomp emerged through Weiser’s close interaction with others. For example, we learn a lot about the role that the ethnographic approach embodied by Lucy Suchman played in Xerox PARC. This underscores that science and technology studies, as it exists today, presupposes a distinct “entanglement” not only between human and machine but also involving the interweaving of technology development and an informed analytical approach to human practice. In all this, the book reiterates the role that the imagination of possible futures, as well as spiritual thinking, played in this entire process.

Therefore, the most relevant insights of John Tinnell’s book are not those that deal with Weiser’s biography, but those that explain how the nascent concepts of the computerization of the human environment emerged in a multilayered figuration...