Von Neumann had delivered his talk "Computers and the Brain" only two years earlier where he referred to the components of a computer in biological terms -- "organelles", "the brain", etc.
No CRTs, mice, hard disk drives, or timeshare O/S. Internal memory was magnetic "core memory."
Kilby and Noyce had invented the integrated circuit a year earlier. The "old guard" i.e. Ken Olsen, Bob Metcalfe, and others were still in school. Grace Hopper thought it might be a good idea to "compile" code.
And here comes this guy from CalTech thinking it would be cool to have ants project manage aphids so The Library of Congress could fit on a credit card.
Am I wrong or could this world use a few more human beings "out there on the curve."