I submitted many proposals before getting support
to pursue the augmentation program outlined in the framework report.
Among the stream of politely phrased regrets, there was one
which in contrast to today's environment can provide useful perspective
on the environment of 1961. Four high-quality civilian experts
had been enlisted by one agency as a site-visit team; brain researcher,
psychologist, computer expert -- and for me it was a very enjoyable
day's dialog. But the later letter from the agency informed me
regretfully that [paraphrased] "... since your interesting
research would require exceptionally advanced programming support,
and since your Palo Alto area is so far from the centers of computer
expertise, we don't think that you could staff your project adequately
...".