Richard Greenblatt

Born

Dec 25, 1944

Richard Greenblatt is born in Oregon, WA on December 25, 1944. Since young Richard has an interest in playing chess.

Love for playing chess

1960

Richard's had great chess skills, shaped his future projects at MIT.

Admitted to MIT

1962

Richard was admitted to MIT in the fall of 1962.

Bill Gosper

Jan 1, 1962

Richard becomes friends with Bill Gosper, and would both contribute to the TMRC while at MIT.

TMRC

Aug 16, 1962

Richard quickly becomes a member of the TechModel Rail Road Model Club and become a big contributor.

Fortran Compiler

1963

Richard writes the first compiler for the PDP-1.

The Hacker Ethic

1965

Greenblatt was a believed that software should be available to all for use and opportunity to further develop technology.

PDP-6 Compiler

1966

Altered PDP-1 compiler to work on PDP-6.

MAC Hack

1967

Richard helps create the first computer program to play chess in human tournament competitions

Mac Hack Popularity

1967

The popularity for Greenblatt's chess games increases and becomes first computer game to beat a human in a rated match.

Lisp Machine

1973

Begins development of the Lisp machine that specializes in Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Symbolics

1980

Richard founds Symbolics, first with first "dot com" domain and oldest active domain today.

Recognition

Nov 20, 1984

Richards contribution to the hacking world was not really mainstream until Steven Levy book, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" was released in 1984.

Ultimate Hacking Machine: Lisp Inc.

1995

Richard makes his own company but ends up filing for bankruptcy in the end.

Today's view

2022

Richard Greenblatt is now considered one of the hacking fathers within the hackers community and still considered a "hackers, hacker."