Silicon Valley Mini Series

Watched the wonderful American Experience documentary on the development of the Silicon Valley again. What dramatic material! It's all here, human stress and struggle and courage and risk taking against long odds. The material deserves treatment focusing on the human drama, rather than the historic facts, and a mini series would be a perfect vehicle for this. Years ago public TV did a first rate mini series on the Manhattan Project. This could be the same kind of project. I hope young dramatists find this material as exciting as I do.

This backdrop also lends itself to something like a detective series, crime set against the development of the silicon valley, with its competition, jealousies, nerdy characters.

And the consequences of what happened here, beginning in the late 50s, with a kick in the pants from Sputnik, are far, far more influential in shaping American  lives than anything that happened in San Francisco or Berkeley at the time, even though those "revolutions" got all the press and still remain stronger in the popular imagination.

Man, these engineers totally changed the world! You can even plug in the rise of rock and roll with their work because the tiny transistor radio, which they made possible, became an  important component of teenage appreciation of the music. And, of course, without their work, no text messaging today etc etc etc. The roots of the digital revolution are filled with possibilities for the dramatist.

Ah, to have youthful energy to pursue it.