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Steven K. Roberts
Born (1952-09-25) September 25, 1952 (age 72)
Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer, archivist, explorer

Steven K. Roberts (born September 25, 1952) is an American journalist, writer, cyclist, archivist, and explorer. He first gained public attention as a pioneering digital nomad, before the term became widely used, when from 1983 to 1991, Roberts toured the United States on three different heavily modified, computerized, Avatar recumbent bicycles: the Winnebiko from 1983 to 1985, the Winnebiko II from 1986 to 1988, and then the BEHEMOTH. He pulled a trailer equipped with solar panels and other electronic equipment. His journey is documented in his book, Computing Across America.[1][2]

BEHEMOTH Bicycle on display at the Computer History Museum on 6-26-2024 from the front

The first year and a half of his bike tour covered over 10,000 miles.[3][4] He wrote articles in his tent and filed the pieces via pay phone submitting them to publications like Time and Newsweek. The bike, also known as the BEHEMOTH,[5][6] had an estimated $300,000 of equipment on it, mostly donated, including satellite email retrieval, a mobile amateur radio station (callsign N4RVE), and a paging system that would page him if an urgent email arrived while he was away from the bike.[7][8][9][10]

After he was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, media coverage accelerated and included a full one-hour appearance on The Phil Donahue Show.[11]

As press attention mounted, he shifted his efforts and built a computerized trimaran. He worked on various iterations of the trimaran for years.[9]

As of 2017, he had turned his efforts into digitizing records and was living aboard a 50-foot power boat equipped with a 3-D printer, weather station, virtual reality system, electronic piano, 10 ham radios, and more, around 50,000 pounds worth, in Friday Harbor, WA.[9]

Books

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  • Industrial Design With Microcomputers (ISBN 978-0134594613) 1982
  • Creative Design With Microcomputers (ISBN 978-0131893177) 1984
  • Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad (ISBN 978-0938734185) Steve describes the wild results of his drastic break with suburban life on his 10,000-mile journey across the United States of America on his computerized bicycle. 1988
  • From Behemoth to Microship Steve's journey from computerized recumbent bicycles, Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH to system design and early adventures with the Microships that are amphibian pedal/solar/sail networked folding micro-trimarans. (ISBN 978-1929470006) 2000.
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References

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  1. ^ Krieg, Martin. "History of the Modern Day Recumbent". Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  2. ^ Smith, G (1988). "Review of Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad". Earth Island Journal. 3 (3): 50. ISSN 1041-0406. JSTOR 43882009.
  3. ^ AINSWORTH, JAMES (August 21, 1987). "A high-tech nomad is wandering through Ithaca". USA TODAY (USA).
  4. ^ Price, Symea A. (October 26, 1987). "NOMAD RIDES ON 'HIGH TREKNOWLEDGY'". Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA). p. 31.
  5. ^ Cassidy, Mike (May 23, 1993). "CYCLIST PEDALS HIS VISION OF END TO COMMUTING". The Mercury News (San Jose, CA). pp. 1B.
  6. ^ O'Brien, Danny (June 3, 2001). "On the road and always on; This virtual life". The Sunday Times [London, England]. p. 30.
  7. ^ Berg, Bailey (October 6, 2021). "The Original Digital Nomad Turned His Bike into a Mobile Office in 1984". Fast Company. ISSN 1085-9241. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  8. ^ Anzovin, Steven (February 1991). "Happy Trails of a Rolling Computer Nomad". Compute!. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Day, Haley (August 2017). "Friday Harbor Boater Houses Floating Computer Lab". The Journal of the San Juan Islands. Friday Harbor, WA. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  10. ^ Carroll, Paul (April 21, 1992). "A Restless Loner on a Custom Bike: It's HAL on Wheels". The Wall Street Journal. New York, NY: Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  11. ^ "Bicycle-bound Computer Genius". The Phil Donahue Show. September 6, 1993. CBS.
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