Uploaded August 2008 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Part 1 of this 3 part video - Big Thinkers is a former ZDTV (later TechTV) television program. It featured a half-hour interview with a "big thinker" in science, technology, and other fields. Interviews were filmed in a 16:9 format and intercut with public domain material from the Prelinger Archives. This archival footage (mostly film clips from the 1940's and 50's) was used to create visual metaphors highlighting the speaker's points. This episode features Ralph Merkle. He is a pioneer in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics. Merkle graduated from Livermore High School in 1970 and proceeded to study Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining his B.A. in 1974, and his M.S. in 1977. In 1979, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, with a thesis titled Secrecy, authentication and public key systems. He was a distinguished professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition to his work at Georgia Tech, Merkle is also a director of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, of Arizona. In industry, Ralph C. Merkle was the manager of compiler development at Elxsi from 1980. In 1988, he became a research scientist at Xerox PARC, until 1999. Subsequently he worked as a nanotechnology theorist for Zyvex, returning to academia in 2003 as a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech.
Watch video # 2 - youtube.com/watch?v=15gO_3cEoaQ
Part 1 of this 3 part video - Big Thinkers is a former ZDTV (later TechTV) television program. It featured a half-hour interview with a "big thinker" in science, technology, and other fields. Interviews were filmed in a 16:9 format and intercut with public domain material from the Prelinger Archives. This archival footage (mostly film clips from the 1940's and 50's) was used to create visual metaphors highlighting the speaker's points. This episode features Ralph Merkle. He is a pioneer in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics. Merkle graduated from Livermore High School in 1970 and proceeded to study Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining his B.A. in 1974, and his M.S. in 1977. In 1979, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, with a thesis titled Secrecy, authentication and public key systems. He was a distinguished professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition to his work at Georgia Tech, Merkle is also a director of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, of Arizona. In industry, Ralph C. Merkle was the manager of compiler development at Elxsi from 1980. In 1988, he became a research scientist at Xerox PARC, until 1999. Subsequently he worked as a nanotechnology theorist for Zyvex, returning to academia in 2003 as a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech.
Watch video # 2 - youtube.com/watch?v=15gO_3cEoaQ
