One of the most important names in computer evolution is Jay W. Forrester. In August of 1949, the U.S.S.R. exploded an atomic weapon. That event had a profound impact on Forrester, even though he was nowhere near the explosion, and was neither a member of the military nor a government official. At the time, Forrester was working in the Electrical Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the atomic explosion caused the United States Navy to take a second look at the Whirlwind computer he had developed. As a result, the Whirlwind became the prototype for a defense system that would last into the 1980s, and Forrester would become recognized as a primary player in the development of the computer.

Jay Wright Forrester was born in Nebraska on July 14, 1918, and raised on a cattle ranch belonging to his parents, Marmaduke M. and Ethel Pearl...