# On-Line Man-Computer Communication

Licklider and Clark sketch real-time, interactive use of computers and gesture toward an 'Intergalactic Computer Network' of connected machines.

## Summary

Building on [Licklider](/wiki/licklider.md)'s symbiosis idea, this paper argued for *on-line*, interactive computing at a time when batch processing dominated. It anticipated a future in which many people work at connected consoles in real time — an early articulation of the networked, time-shared computing that ARPANET would later realize.

## Why it matters

The paper is one of the conceptual roots of computer networking itself, leading directly to Licklider's later [memo to the "Intergalactic Computer Network"](/docs/licklider-memo.md). It belongs to the same arc of human-centered, networked computing that the Independent Internet continues.

> Part of the AP0110.ORG source library. See the [wiki overview](/wiki.md).

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## Backlinks

Pages that link here:

- [J.C.R. Licklider](/wiki/licklider.md) — Psychologist and computer scientist who envisioned human-computer symbiosis and the networked 'Intergalactic Computer Network.'