Man–computer symbiosis
Also: Licklider, human-computer symbiosis
J.C.R. Licklider's 1960 vision of humans and computers coupled so tightly they think together.
In "Man–Computer Symbiosis" (1960), psychologist-turned-computer-scientist J.C.R. Licklider imagined a partnership in which "human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly," dividing the labour of thought: humans set goals, frame problems, and supply judgment; machines handle the routine, the clerical, and the vast.
Licklider noticed that he spent most of his "thinking" time on mechanical chores — finding data, plotting, calculating — that prepared him to think but weren't thinking. The promise of symbiosis was to give those chores to the machine and free the human for the real work.
As director of ARPA's IPTO, Licklider then funded the future: Engelbart's augmentation lab, time-sharing, and the research that became the internet. Few essays have done more to bring their own predictions about than this one.