Samuel Jerrold "Jerry" Kaplan (born March 25, 1952) is an American computer scientist, author, futurist, and entrepreneur. He is best known as a pioneer in the field of pen computing and tablet computers. He is the founder of numerous companies, including GO Corporation, whose technology was used to develop the first smartphone and tablet PC. Kaplan is the co-founder of OnSale, the first B2C online auction site launched in 1994, five months prior to eBay. He is a recipient of the 1998 Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award and author of the best-selling book Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure. He has been featured in major news publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Red Herring, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Kaplan is also the author of the 2015 book Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Additional companies he has co-founded include artificial intelligence company Teknowledge, Inc. and social game website Winster.com. Kaplan was briefly a Fellow at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. Early life and education Kaplan attended the University of Chicago where he received a Bachelor's Degree in history and philosophy of science in 1972. He then studied computer science at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated in 1979 with a Doctorate in computer and information science. Career While at the University of Pennsylvania, Kaplan wrote the software for the first all-digital keyboard instrument, the Synergy, sold by Digital Keyboards, Inc. In 1980. The Synergy was used by Wendy Carlos to compose Digital Moonscapes. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Kaplan joined the computer science department at Stanford University. He was a research associate with Stanford between 1979 and 1981. While at Stanford he wrote the database backend for the first personal computer natural language query system that became the first product of Symantec, called Q&A. In 1981 he co-founded the company Teknowledge, Inc., a publicly traded artificial intelligence company. Kaplan was hired by Lotus Development Corporation to develop and design software based on Al techniques, working as the company's principal technologist. While at Lotus he developed Lotus Agenda, an early DOS-based personal information manager along with Ed Belove and Mitchell Kapor. He got the idea for another venture while riding in a plane with Kapor and discussing computer technology and the need for a notebook type computer. This idea led