Today, Google honors “The Mayor of Silicon Valley” with a Doodle that puts the Google logo right in the middle of a chip.
That chip is there to celebrate Robert Noyce, the influential tech figure that is credited with the being one of the minds behind the microchip. Noyce died in 1990, but this Doodle recognizes his birthday – he would have turned 84 years old today.
Noyce graduated from MIT and immediately jumped into research. He eventually landed a job at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, but shorty left the company as part of a group called the Traitorous Eight. These eight left the company due to a difference of opinion regarding managerial style and the direction of research.
He then co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor, an highly influential company headquartered in San Jose, California. In 1968, he founded Intel with Gordon Moore – and you probably know a little about that company.
Noyce was also an advocate for education, understanding that preparing kids for the technological improvements of the future was key to success. A year after his death, his family set up the Noyce Foundation, a charity charged with helping kids excel in math and science, among other things.
Check out this amazing footage of Noyce from 1981. You’ll be amazed at how he describes the future of work – and how he accurately predicts the rise of the information sector. As one YouTube commenter points out, it looks like he’s talking about Skype about halfway through the piece. And because of this, he says people will live “where it’s conducive to live, not where it is conducive to work.”
