"Dealers of Lightning" is not the best book to read (try Mitchell Waldrop's "The Dream Machine").
That said, Bob Taylor cannot be praised too highly, both for Parc and for his earlier stint as one of the ARPA-IPTO directors.
Simple answer: There aren't a lot of Bob Taylors in any decade (but there are some). Big difference between then and now is that the funders were "just right" back then, and have been "quite clueless" over the last 30 some odd years. An interesting very recent exception is what Sam Altman is doing -- this is shaping into the biggest most interesting most important initiative since the 70s.
That said, Bob Taylor cannot be praised too highly, both for Parc and for his earlier stint as one of the ARPA-IPTO directors.
Simple answer: There aren't a lot of Bob Taylors in any decade (but there are some). Big difference between then and now is that the funders were "just right" back then, and have been "quite clueless" over the last 30 some odd years. An interesting very recent exception is what Sam Altman is doing -- this is shaping into the biggest most interesting most important initiative since the 70s.