EditDroid

After MIT, Thompson joined Lucasfilm as project lead on EditDroid, one of the first random-access, computer-controlled video editing systems. Before EditDroid, Hollywood editors worked with razor blades and reels of tape: linear, destructive, slow. EditDroid let an editor jump anywhere in a sequence, splice without cutting, and try a version without losing the last one.

The system never reached mass adoption. The hardware was expensive, the industry slow to switch. But the idea outran the machine. By the mid-90s, non-linear editing had won. The line from EditDroid runs through Avid and Premiere to every cut you see today.