The Hacker's Hacker - Richard Greenblatt

By Ant DLC
  • Date of Birth

    Date of Birth

  • MIT Enrollment

    Greenblatt enrolls at MIT in the Fall of 1962.
  • The Tech Model Railroad Club

    The Tech Model Railroad Club

    Greenblatt joins the Tech Model Railroad Club in his second term at MIT

  • Writes the first FORTRAN for PDP-1

    Greenblatt decides to write a program that would enable you to write in FORTRAN. It allowed you to write and compile code into machine language.
  • Flunk's out of MIT

    Flunk's out of MIT

    After Greenblatt 'zorched' his classes he exits from MIT.

  • MacLISP

    Although no longer attending MIT, Richard did not give up programming and began with some work on the LISP Compiler which was written for the PDP-1. Richard altered it to work for the PDP-6.
  • The MacHack

    The MacHack

    Having a love for Chess, Richard was disappointed in the creation of the Kotok Program thinking it was 'crap' so he decided on creating his own AI for competing in Chess Matches.

  • MacHack VI Competing

    In February 1967, the MacHack program competers in a U.S. Chess Federation Tournament. It draws one game and loses four. “Machack VI.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/MacHack-VI.

  • Charles Adam Associates

    After no longer being in school, continuing his work as a hacker Richard takes a position at the firm Charles Adam Associates.

  • Hired as Fulltime Hacker

    Noftsker Officially hires Greenblatt, Nelson and Gosper as full-time hackers. He begins work at AI Lab.
  • Agreement on Time-Sharing

    Agreement on Time-Sharing

    While working at AI Lab, Fredkin had worked on Greenblatt for weeks and Richard finally agreed that time sharing should be implemented on the PDP-6.
    This allowed for a push in an experiment with time sharing, which had the hacker ethic in its soul.

  • Bobby Fischer Plays MacHack

    In 1977 the MacHack played three games against the world chess champion Bobby Fischer.

  • Greenblatt's LISP machine

    In his mid 30's Greenblatt decides that he wants an all out hacking computer. He realizes that the LISP Machine was an ultimately flexible world-builder, the embodiment of the hacker.
  • Founding of Symbolics

    Founding of Symbolics

    Given a year to establish his own company, the backers of the LISP machine Incorporation formed the heavily capitalized company called Symbolics.

  • Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

    The book Hackers: Heoes of the Computer Revolution is published recognizing the accomplishments and life of Richard Greenblatt as a Hacker's hacker
  • Death of LISP Machine Era

    Death of LISP Machine Era

    With the rapid growth of the microprocessor the LISP machine era had ended.