In the swirling vortex of innovation and rebellion that marked the 1960s and '70s in Stanford, California, a unique blend of visionary zeal and countercultural daring gave birth to the personal computing revolution. "What the Dormouse Said" by John Markoff captures this extraordinary era with vivid detail, tracing the unconventional path taken by a motley crew of engineers, hackers, and dreamers. They sought not just to create machines, but to forge tools for liberation and expansion of the human mind. Through the haze of LSD trips and the buzz of The Whole Earth Catalog, emerged the foundational ideas for personal computing as we know it today. Markoff's narrative weaves together the tales of iconic figures such as Ken Kesey and the enigmatic phone hacker Cap'n Crunch, against the backdrop of est training and the Homebrew Computer Lab's frenetic meetings. It reveals how the counter-culture's embrace of openness, decentralization, and community directly influenced the development of technology, setting the stage for a digital age that would champion both sharing and personal empowerment. "What the Dormouse Said" is not just the history of how computers came into our homes but a compelling story of how the revolutionary spirits of an era envisioned technology as a means to expand human consciousness, challenging readers to rethink the origins and aims of the digital world.