Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums — Stewart Brand, Rolling Stone, Dec 7 1972

Stewart Brand, Rolling Stone, December 7, 1972

Byline: “Stewart Brand, 33, is a graduate of Stanford (biology). From 1968 to 1971 he edited the Whole Earth Catalog.”

Steve Baer direct quote

In the section “The Research Park,” Brand describes the Xerox Research Center as “an idyll, a new building high on an oak-savannahed golden foothill in Stanford’s industrial park in Palo Alto, California, a blue-skied shimmery threatless landscape.” He then quotes Baer:

“Every time I think of that place I start to scratch my balls. It makes me nervous,” argues dome and solar designer Steve Baer from dusty Albuquerque, recalling that most of the evil he knows has emitted from similar ivory towers.

This is one of the earliest documented direct quotes from Baer in a major publication. Brand describes him as “dome and solar designer” — not thermal engineer or passive solar inventor, consistent with the 1972 date (pre-Cool Cell, pre-DrumWall mass deployment).

Bill English mention

In the Dynabook section, Bill English (the same Bill English who traveled with Engelbart to meet Baer at Libre commune per Turner 2006) is quoted describing the Dynabook concept at Xerox.

Resource One / WEC money

Brand notes in the Resource One section that the group “borrowed $8000 from the Whole Earth Catalog, of which we paid back six.” He explains: “[News to me. This was part of the $20,000 I had turned over to the mob at the Catalog Demise Party.]” — confirms the WEC money was distributed to countercultural technology projects.

Opening line

“Ready or not, computers are coming to the people. That’s good news, maybe the best since psychedelics.”

Key figures in the article

Stewart Brand — author; ex-WEC editor
Ralph Gorin — AI Lab head system programmer; Spacewar organizer
Steve Russell — MIT, 1962 Spacewar inventor
Alan Kay — Xerox PARC researcher; Dynabook designer; WEC reader
Bob Taylor — ARPA-IPT director; then Xerox
Peter Deutsch — Xerox PARC; “world’s greatest programmer” per Kay
Les Earnest — AI executive officer; quoted on research culture
Pam Hart — Resource One; hustled a free XDS 940 from TransAmerica
Bill English — Xerox; describes Dynabook; same person who visited Baer (Turner 2006)
Doug Engelbart — ARC; NLS system; mentioned for text manipulation system
Steve Baer — “dome and solar designer” from Albuquerque; direct quote on ivory towers

Significance for the archive

Direct Baer quote in Rolling Stone (1972) — confirms Brand-Baer relationship; Baer’s skepticism of the research establishment on record.
Brand describes Baer as “dome and solar designer” — not yet “thermal engineer”; consistent with the pre-thermal phase of Baer’s public identity.
Bill English at Xerox — Turner (2006) places English visiting Baer at Libre commune with Engelbart; here English is at Xerox describing the Dynabook to Brand; same person, same network.
Dynabook compared to WEC — Kay’s Dynabook is described as “about the size, shape and diversity of a Whole Earth Catalog, electric” — the WEC as the formal/cultural model for personal computing.