Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, was a visionary and Internet pioneer whose contributions to computer science are great---a computer scientist from MIT who worked on SAGE, and later saw the value in connecting various communities together \cite[1]{bisson}, is known for contributing his ideas to the formation of the Internet \cite[1]{pioneers}.


At a time where computers were run using holes in punch cards, ``Lick'', as he asked to be called \cite[5]{lickliderpdf}, had a better idea for how computers should work. In 1960 he wrote ``Man-Computer Symbiosis'', and talked about real-time communication between man and machine, and also modern topics that still remain somewhat unsolved such as speech recognition---he was ahead of his time.


It was in 1962 when J.C.R. was asked to take command of the Behavioral Sciences and Command and Control departments of the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) \cite[1]{pioneers}, where his role was to manage a department to fund researchers to build new technology and teams. Lick had at his disposal a funding amount that at that time was greater than any other funded computer science projects \cite[5]{lickliderpdf}. 


Although Lick left ARPA, where he coined the name ``ARPANET'' \cite[1]{pioneers}, it was shortly after he left when ARPANET connected four computers together in 1969 \cite[1]{bisson}. The chief architect of ARPANET, Larry Roberts, years later claimed that Lick was responsible for the ideas of the Internet, even though Lick wasn't present at ARPANET during the time it was implemented: 


\begin{quotation}
The vision was really Lick's originally. None of us can really claim to have seen that before him nor{can} anybody in the world. Lick saw this vision in the early sixties. He didn't have a clue how to build it. He didn't have any idea how to make this happen. But he knew it was important, so he sat down with me and really convinced me that it was important and convinced me into making it happen \cite[1]{pioneers}.
\end{quotation}
It is clear that Lick was an Internet Visionary. Written in 1968, ``The Computer as a Communication Device'' was another influential paper that Lick wrote a paper that envisioned the future of digital communication, in which he envisioned ``[i]n a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face'' \cite[26]{licklider2}. Lick also wrote about shared computer programs and hinted at what today is know as the ``cloud'', and even online communities: ``[b]ut let us be optimistic. What will on-line interactive communities be like?'' \cite[37]{licklider2}.


The Internet