The Father of the Internet

Dateline: 10-4-20 – It is with great sadness that I must inform you of the passing of our friend, Edson Hendricks. Edson died on August 29th, 2020 after a long illness. The amazing medium we are using right now had the most unusual beginning starting with a computer game called “Starwar”, created by young Edson Hendricks.

Edson Hendricks landed a position as a computer operator on an IBM System/360 Model 65 computer. With a 2250 video display, Hendricks created a computer game to teach himself how to program the machine. “Starwar” was the first computer video game to run on an IBM machine.

Hendricks went on to work on the team to develop the world’s first virtual machine operating system, CP/CMS. The founder and manager of IBM’s Cambridge Scientific Center, Norman Rasmussen asked Hendricks to find a way for the CSC machine to talk to IBM’s other computers at other Scientific Centers.

This was the beginning of computers doing what they are doing right now; talking with other computers, and Edson Hendricks was there.

At the ground level, you could say that Edson Hendricks was the “Father of the Internet”. Yes, people such as Arthur C. Clark and other futurists could “see” that “one day…”, but Edson figured out HOW to actually do it.

Leanne Jones and Edson were very good friends and Leanne is the author of Edson Hendricks life story, titled, “It’s Cool to Be Clever: The Story of Edson C. Hendricks, the Genius Who Invented the Design for the Internet”, and is available HERE. The book is a delight to read and the illustrations by Anna Mah are sweet.

Leanne wanted to share this about her friend; “I went through my copious notes about Edson and found this little nugget in his own words. Quite touching! It encapsulates his work. Here it is…”

“If the Internet was a person, it would be a person with a lonely heart. Ah, but it would also be a person of service. It would be of service to others. There’s a lot of a humanistic quality here, that if this was a person, that, that, uh, this person would make a really good friend”

Leanne and Edson were very good friends and Leanne is the author of Edson Hendricks life story, titled, “It’s Cool to Be Clever: The Story of Edson C. Hendricks, the Genius Who Invented the Design for the Internet”, and is available HERE. The book is a delight to read and the illustrations by Anna Mah are sweet.

It was my extreme pleasure to have Edson on Far Out Radio three times. In his first two visits, we talked about “Inventing the Internet”.

In his third visit, we talked about the phenomenon called “The Marfa Lights”, in the little town of Marfa, Texas. All the way back to the time when Native Americans wandered the American southwest, people have observed the strange orbs of light that pop out of the ground at night.

Remember the 1956 movie, “Giant” with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean? That was filmed in Marfa, Texas. 

“Orbs of light” coming out of the ground, while rare, have been reported on other places, such as the Maco Lights” in Maco Station, North Carolina, and in places around Mt. Shasta. Edson became fascinated with the Marfa Lights and went there to study the phenomenon. His conclusions are amazing and probably spot on. You be the judge.

You can read more about Edson Hendricks on his Wikipedia page HERE. – Scott