Isn't the terminator a cybernetic machine?

How crucial are visionary leaders to cutting edge technological development? Were their ideas a natural progression or blind leap of genius?

As the reading stated, men like Vannevar Bush, Norbert Wienerm and J.C.R. Licklider lead the way with ideas of personal computers despite a general consensus of skepticism on the subject. On one hand, the super-computers that took up entire buildings were slowly growing in power and shrinking in size, but without the large support of Douglas Engelbart I don't believe NLS would have come out when it did.

Once the idea for a personal computer that acts as an extension of humanity for enhancement rather than as a potential rival in the still-mythic artificial intelligence I think that it was a natural progression to reach the xerox alto. Every scientist or engineer working at all in the field of computers were going to naturally be drawn to the idea of making computers more accessible and certainly more useful. One can definitely notice though that the enhancements came slowly. First size came down, then punch cards were replaced with an actual code interface, and finally a GUI which we all use today (like windows) was developed in the final steps of development before the Xerox Alto.
Like the theory that given infinite time a room of monkeys with typewriters would compete all of Shakespeare's works by chance, I believe that the move towards personal computers was inevitable once world war 2 ended. It naturally sparked interest as a powerful new tool and demanded to be enhanced to expand the user base.