Licklider’s Man-Computer Symbiosis offered a unique perspective on the relationship between humans and computers, machines, and digital processors during the rapid developments of analytical engines and proprietary computer technologies. The fascination with new technology and the description of a “symbiosis relationship” between mankind and computers offered a fairly imaginative, speculative vision of what computers would have become during that time. Licklider repeatedly referenced wars, office, and laboratory settings as contexts for the computation devices, which connects to the background of the time period during which the theories were produced. Upon first read, many statements and arguments made in the article came off as stating the obvious for me, as many of those theories were proven to be a basic line of thinking when interacting with the computer. However, during the second half of the article, it quickly became clear that the “stating the obvious” was a speculative hypothesis about the future, and many “theories” stated in the article did actually become the reality, underlining the concrete thinking of the article.

What I found particularly interesting was the comparison of human-computer interaction to a relationship that is synonymous with symbiosis in nature, also known as the form of co-existing and living together amongst organisms. The speculative imagination of computers as a being that is similar to a living, thinking, processing organism intrigues me, especially in the context of the 60s. The essay is less a scientific, procedural explanation of how a computer works, but more an analytic approach to how one should approach computers, computer science, and data processors during a time in which computers were not yet prevalent. What I found particularly interesting was the writer’s argument, “the large display should be supplemented” for data visualization and operational (input and output) equipment, as part of a collaborative structure amongst one computer and many members in the team for easier interaction. The integration of large displays, monitor screens, and output visualizers dates back as early as this article, and we can still see that in demand nowadays — larger screens, phones, etc.

Despite the lack of technical language to sufficiently express the reasoning with data and experiments, which does, in my opinion, largely make this essay a speculative hypothesis, the reading provides various important humanistic and philosophical perspectives on how computers should be perceived by mankind. Basing the idea on symbiosis, Licklider states that humans should not rely on machines and vice versa.

Sure, nowadays the technology has changed drastically and LLM models can process millions of information and retrieve data in an instant, disproving many theories suggested in the article. But the central question of how humans should interact with the more efficient, fast-processing machines will continue to be a question in the 21st century and onwards. Although nowadays AI has become proprietary and extremely prevalent, accessible technology, users must not forget the interactivity of man and machine, a partnership that should be of a cooperative nature.