4 ms·

A History of Silicon Valley

96 points by rl3 7y ago

fluxic 7y ago
Funny to see the world's biggest underground music critic meme star on the front page of HN!
adventured 7y ago
My favorite early history of Silicon Valley is still the 2013 PBS show ("American Experience: Silicon Valley" - 82 minutes long). I found it to be quite well done: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2547530/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2547530/
- 4AoZqrH2fsk5UB 7y ago
  This was my first thought. I’m surprised how many people don’t know the basic outline.
rrss 7y ago
> (1948: Claude Shannon founds Information Theory and coins the term "bit") Shannon used the term in his 1948 paper, but IIRC it was Tukey that coined the term and suggested it to Shannon.
rst 7y ago
See also "The Secret History of Silicon Valley", by former tech executive Steve Blank: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ Post-world war II defense contractors, mentored and brokered personally by Stanford prof Fred Terman, have a lot to do with setting the stage, and get surprisingly little attention for having done it...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- creato 7y ago
  > and get surprisingly little attention for having done it... One big chunk of people don't like to hear that the military had such a big influence in the tech industry, and another big chunk of people don't want to admit that government funding contributed to something wildly successful.
nosianu 7y ago
"The Secret History of Silicon Valley": https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo TL;DW: Unlimited debt-based government spending during WWII in R&D and electronics development like radar (which actually is a catch-all phrase for lots of very different technologies) provided the fertile ground for the later capitalistic growth phase. > Today, Silicon Valley is known around the world as a fount of technology innovation and development fueled by private venture capital and peopled by fabled entrepreneurs. But it wasn't always so. Unbeknownst to even seasoned inhabitants, today's Silicon Valley had its start in government secrecy and wartime urgency.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  It's not commonly known about the 40s period when Stanford U. was known as "The Farm." But afterwards ... the military was the only customer for $10 transistors in the 50s, there's like 100 Superfund sites with plume vents, and the Blue Cube was only recently torn down.
- gumby 7y ago
  > TL;DW: Unlimited debt-based government spending during WWII in R&D and electronics development like radar (which actually is a catch-all phrase for lots of very different technologies) provided the fertile ground for the later capitalistic growth phase. I agree with this with the caveat that the big beneficiary of this largesse in the wartime and postwar region was inside Route 128 in Boston; Silicon Valley really started taking off in the mid-late 70s. This is actually reflected in the timeline (though its parentheicization is buggy). The then primacy of the greater Boston area is not a complete accident: Both FDR's science advisor, Vannevar Bush, and the head of the wartime NDRC were born and educated in Boston (both MIT grads; Conent was president of Harvard). As the article points out, the major SV academic institutions Stanford and UCB were still considered second tier at that time (despite UCB's atomic work and Stanford's having already produced a US president).
  - nosianu 7y ago
    It is all mentioned and explained in the video I linked though. Those Boston developments were not in isolation, what happened there impacted what happened in SV.
jeromebaek 7y ago
Scaruffi is an interesting guy. I've been following him since 2014. One of the most prolific polymaths of our time. This is a good book: https://www.scaruffi.com/nature/purchase.html https://www.scaruffi.com/nature/purchase.html
- ot 7y ago
  Also see https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/arts/15morr.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/arts/15morr.html
11thEarlOfMar 7y ago
One interesting anecdote: The Varian brothers, Russell and Sigurd [1], were "Born to theosophist parents who helped lead the utopian community of Halcyon, California". [0] Halcyon was an 'intentional community'. They founded Varian Associates, an early influential firm, and a prototype for the Silicon Valley M.O. for creating technology companies: They were incubated at Stanford University. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halcyon,_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halcyon,_California [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_and_Sigurd_Varian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_and_Sigurd_Varian
nikofeyn 7y ago
there is also adam curtis’ documentary all watched over by machines of living grace. https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353 https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353 https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799352 https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799352 https://vimeo.com/channels/ciri/80799354 https://vimeo.com/channels/ciri/80799354 it isn’t an eplicit history of silicon valley, but it does cover related ideas and movements.
ughitsaaron 7y ago
This profile by Tom Wolfe of Robert Noyce, the co-founder id Intel and so-called “Mayor of Silicon Valley”, also offers up some interesting history for those interested. https://classic.esquire.com/article/1983/12/1/the-tinkerings-of-robert-noyce https://classic.esquire.com/article/1983/12/1/the-tinkerings...
mattdougherty0 7y ago
Thanks for the post, I enjoy the format although why the decision to not include direct sources for each event on the timeline?

96 points by rl3 7y ago

Funny to see the world's biggest underground music critic meme star on the front page of HN!

My favorite early history of Silicon Valley is still the 2013 PBS show ("American Experience: Silicon Valley" - 82 minutes long). I found it to be quite well done: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2547530/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2547530/

4AoZqrH2fsk5UB 7y ago
This was my first thought. I’m surprised how many people don’t know the basic outline.

rrss 7y ago

> (1948: Claude Shannon founds Information Theory and coins the term "bit") Shannon used the term in his 1948 paper, but IIRC it was Tukey that coined the term and suggested it to Shannon.

rst 7y ago

See also "The Secret History of Silicon Valley", by former tech executive Steve Blank: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ Post-world war II defense contractors, mentored and brokered personally by Stanford prof Fred Terman, have a lot to do with setting the stage, and get surprisingly little attention for having done it...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
creato 7y ago
> and get surprisingly little attention for having done it... One big chunk of people don't like to hear that the military had such a big influence in the tech industry, and another big chunk of people don't want to admit that government funding contributed to something wildly successful.

nosianu 7y ago

"The Secret History of Silicon Valley": https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo TL;DW: Unlimited debt-based government spending during WWII in R&D and electronics development like radar (which actually is a catch-all phrase for lots of very different technologies) provided the fertile ground for the later capitalistic growth phase. > Today, Silicon Valley is known around the world as a fount of technology innovation and development fueled by private venture capital and peopled by fabled entrepreneurs. But it wasn't always so. Unbeknownst to even seasoned inhabitants, today's Silicon Valley had its start in government secrecy and wartime urgency.

redis_mlc 7y ago
It's not commonly known about the 40s period when Stanford U. was known as "The Farm." But afterwards ... the military was the only customer for $10 transistors in the 50s, there's like 100 Superfund sites with plume vents, and the Blue Cube was only recently torn down.
gumby 7y ago
> TL;DW: Unlimited debt-based government spending during WWII in R&D and electronics development like radar (which actually is a catch-all phrase for lots of very different technologies) provided the fertile ground for the later capitalistic growth phase. I agree with this with the caveat that the big beneficiary of this largesse in the wartime and postwar region was inside Route 128 in Boston; Silicon Valley really started taking off in the mid-late 70s. This is actually reflected in the timeline (though its parentheicization is buggy). The then primacy of the greater Boston area is not a complete accident: Both FDR's science advisor, Vannevar Bush, and the head of the wartime NDRC were born and educated in Boston (both MIT grads; Conent was president of Harvard). As the article points out, the major SV academic institutions Stanford and UCB were still considered second tier at that time (despite UCB's atomic work and Stanford's having already produced a US president).
- nosianu 7y ago
  It is all mentioned and explained in the video I linked though. Those Boston developments were not in isolation, what happened there impacted what happened in SV.

jeromebaek 7y ago

Scaruffi is an interesting guy. I've been following him since 2014. One of the most prolific polymaths of our time. This is a good book: https://www.scaruffi.com/nature/purchase.html https://www.scaruffi.com/nature/purchase.html

ot 7y ago
Also see https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/arts/15morr.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/arts/15morr.html

11thEarlOfMar 7y ago

One interesting anecdote: The Varian brothers, Russell and Sigurd [1], were "Born to theosophist parents who helped lead the utopian community of Halcyon, California". [0] Halcyon was an 'intentional community'. They founded Varian Associates, an early influential firm, and a prototype for the Silicon Valley M.O. for creating technology companies: They were incubated at Stanford University. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halcyon,_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halcyon,_California [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_and_Sigurd_Varian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_and_Sigurd_Varian

nikofeyn 7y ago

there is also adam curtis’ documentary all watched over by machines of living grace. https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353 https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353 https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799352 https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799352 https://vimeo.com/channels/ciri/80799354 https://vimeo.com/channels/ciri/80799354 it isn’t an eplicit history of silicon valley, but it does cover related ideas and movements.

ughitsaaron 7y ago

This profile by Tom Wolfe of Robert Noyce, the co-founder id Intel and so-called “Mayor of Silicon Valley”, also offers up some interesting history for those interested. https://classic.esquire.com/article/1983/12/1/the-tinkerings-of-robert-noyce https://classic.esquire.com/article/1983/12/1/the-tinkerings...

mattdougherty0 7y ago

Thanks for the post, I enjoy the format although why the decision to not include direct sources for each event on the timeline?