Entrepreneur Steven Gary Blank delivers an outstanding lecture on “The Secret History of Silicon Valley.” The story is in large part how Frederick Terman invented the culture of entrepreneurship at Stanford and Silicon Valley in the aftermath of World War II. Blank’s lecture is peppered with fascinating details. For instance, I was interested to learn that DARPA backed radio astronomy in the 1950s so as to gather intelligence on Soviet radar signals using moon bounce techniques. I could quibble a bit with his characterization of WWII as the “first electronic war.” That honor rightly belongs to WWI where key battles like Tannenberg and Jutland hinged on signals intelligence (see: RTLS: Direction-Finding Goes to War). And a purist might go back to the use of telegraphy in the American Civil War. But that’s a minor complaint. Watch and enjoy below, or click through for this transcript of Blank’s talk.
Hat tip: Dewayne Hendricks.
