Licklider didn't know it then, but this unofficial experiment prepared the way for the invention of interactive computing. J.C.R. Licklider’s article, “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” was the opening piece in the inaugural issue (March 1960) of the electrical engineering journal, IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics. The journal ceased publications just 2 years later in 1962. We are close to achieving the complete man-computer symbiosis that Licklider envisions here- where humans process data in unthinkable ways with a tight coupling to machines. There are now many companies and initiatives ranging from Facebook's brain-computer interface, to Darpa projects to Elon Musk's Neuralink company that are all working towards this tight coupling. Neuralink in particular is working on a cloud based artificial intelligent extension of our brains, an augmentation of human intelligence that is closest to Licklider's vision. Although we can perform incredible computations far exceeding human processing with the power of smartphones and personal computers, we have not yet achieved his ultimate vision. Many believe that the years of man-computer symbiosis will be the most creative and exciting in the history of mankind as we make scientific and intellectual discoveries at an exponential pace. The rapid rise of computing power with Moore's law and our generation of bigger and bigger data sets has already impacted every scientific discipline; the man-computer symbiosis driven by artificial intelligence would lead to our exponential ability to analyze these data sets and make even more discoveries. It is interesting that Licklider puts a time table on our ability to use man-computer symbiosis. He says we will have "15 years to use it. The 15 may be 10 or 500". What occurs after those 10 to 500 years is presumably an artificial intelligence that outperforms even a man-computer symbiosis. Licklider's predictions are a bit ambitious in terms of their time horizon (it is crazy to think that the technology could improve so exponentially from 1960 when he wrote this article to 1980) but they have for the most part come true. Problem solving and thinking of military significance is currently done by military strategists with access to incredible computing ability/power, and artificial intelligence is not yet the standard for decision making. It is reasonable to project that for military decisions that need to be made on a minute/second time scale, computers and artificial intelligence will no doubt outperform humans soon. The use of military AI will not doubt be a matter of immense debate. Organizations like Open AI are currently researching different ethical issues of AI in anticipation of this future. Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (March 1915 – June 1990), was an American psychologist, and computer scientist and is one of the most important figures in the history of computer science and computing. He is one of the first people to foresee modern-style interactive computing and its application to all manner of activities; and he was an internet pioneer who had an early vision of a worldwide computer network long before it was built. His predictions and actions actually initiated the internet by funding research which led to much of it, including today's graphical user interphase, and the ARPANET, the direct predecessor to the Internet. Among other things, he has been called “computing’s Johnny Appleseed", for planting the seeds of computing in the digital age; Robert Taylor, founder of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory and Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center, noted that "most of the significant advances in computer technology—including the work that my group did at Xerox PARC—were simply extrapolations of Lick's vision. They were not really new visions of their own. So he was really the father of it all”. Licklider's paper not only presents a remarkably prescient prediction of the future, but also inspires many people, like Robert Taylor, to work towards achieving his vision. Licklider spent much of his career pushing towards man-computer symbiosis. In 1962, Licklider was asked to lead to ARPA departments: Behavioral Sciences and Command and Control. One of his main tasks with this position was to find a better use for computers other than numerical calculations. In order to accomplish this, Licklider sought out top computer research institutions and opened research contracts with them. Among these institutions were Stanford, UCLA, and Berkeley. This group, named the Intergalactic Computer Network by Licklider, were eventually part of the group that created ARPANET; the precursor to the internet. Licklider directed ARPA, a government agency, from 1962 to 1964. Using government funds, he supported inventors whose creativeness led to: personal computing, creating the first online community; the mouse, onscreen windows, hypertext, word processing; and the ARPAnet, the prequel to the Internet.