I learned a few days ago that Joi Ito’s parents worked for Stanford Ovshinsky at Energy Conversion Devices and Ovshinsky, a great inventor who never went past high school and grew up as a Social Democrat in the Workers Circle tradition, mentored him and treated him almost like a son.
I’d like to ask Joi Ito about his history with Ovshinsky sometime and will when next I see him at the Media Lab.
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow: The Life and Inventions of Stanford R. Ovshinsky by Lillian Hoddeson and Peter Garrett might be worth a mention by boingboing at some point. Ovshinsky deserves to be remembered and studied.
