It would be impossible for Doug Engelbart, a genuine pioneer in GUI based computing, to think about joining the Peace Corps in 1950 as Markoff states. The Peace Corps was founded by President Kennedy in 1960.

Nonetheless, New York Times [sic] technology journo Markoff is on to something, because for the first time in the general press, somebody listened to Alan "Smalltalk" Kay, who saw in 1968 that Engelbart was light-years ahead of his time.

Nonetheless this journo sloppiness is the norm when reporters write about technology probably because they are compelled, as writers, to think of technology as mechanism and not itself a form of writing.