Getty Images John Perry Barlow, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, appears at the PC Forum in Tucson, Ariz., in 1991

BEST KNOWN AS: a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, penning, with guitarist and founding member Bob Weir, such Dead staples as “Looks like Rain,” “Mexicali Blues” and “Cassidy”

THE INTEL: A comparative-religions major at Wesleyan, Barlow was at the forefront of the digital revolution, playing a big role in the growth of the WELL, one of the very first online communities. (It also served as something of a virtual meeting space for many Deadheads.) In 1990, he, along with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor, founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve and protect freedoms in computing and telecommunications. Since 1998, Barlow has been a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

BRAINIAC RATING, ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 11: 9

EXTRA CREDIT: Barlow is a managing partner at Algae Systems, a company that is researching ways to convert sewage into fuel and fertilizer.

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