Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, known simply as J.C.R. was an American psychologist and computer scientist who is considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history.

 

He is particularly remembered for being one of the first to foresee modern-style interactive computing, and its application to all manner of activities. 

 

J.C.R. was also as an Internet pioneer with an early vision of a worldwide computer network long before it was built.

 

He did much to initiate this network by funding research, leading to today's canonical graphical user interface and the ARPANET, which was the direct predecessor to the Internet.

 

He has been called computing's Johnny Appleseed for planting the seeds of modern computing in the digital age.

Robert Taylor, founder of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory and Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center noted that 'most of the significant advances in computer technology - including the work that my group did at Xerox PARC - were simply extrapolations of J.C.R.'s vision. They were not really new visions of their own. So he was really the father of it all.'​