.Dan Pulcrano and Geoffrey Dunn

The beat and hippie movements that drove America's cultural and political transformation in the 1950s and 1960s were also key links in Silicon Valley's creation, as the counterculture's mind-expanded vision fused with a fledgling defense electronics cluster. What if everything from the Grateful Dead to the sexual revolution, trillion dollar company valuations and the global infestation of pocket computers and talkable home appliances could be traced back to one person? If anyone deserves employee badge No. 1, I'd nominate Al Hinkle.