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COMPUTER
IZARDRY
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where
IS
it leading
us?
by
Donald D. Schroeder
It
is time we understood the kind of age we live in!
M
RE AND MORE,
nations are be–
coming depen–
dent on compu ters
and mi c roc ircu itry.
And in that depen–
dence resides fright–
ening vu lnerability–
and, potentially, enor–
mous socia l problems.
W i tho u t compu t–
ers-and the micr o–
chip, left, highly mag–
nified - the banking
system of modern na–
tions would a lready
have broken down un–
der a bl izzard of bil–
lions of checks and
financia! t ransactions .
Jumbo jets could not fly
smoothly in the ai r without comput–
ers. Nor could you reliably reserve a
seat on one. Computers are used to
navigate ships, military spacecraft
and missiles. They are utilized to
design and cut out complex swaths
of metal and fabrics in industry,
speeding up production while reduc–
ing wastage.
Also, computers assist in devel–
oping weather forecasts, directing
complex city traffic light systems,
setting newspaper and magazine
March 1982
type-even for
The Plain Truth!
Modern oil refineries, steel and
glass-making plants are run by
computers. Dams often open and
shut by computers. Modern busi–
ness and industrial needs for effi–
ciency are so great that business–
meo must use computers or micro–
electronic technology to cut labor
costs, cut waste and fight infla–
tion-or die because their competi–
tion uses computers.
In more and more industries,
engineers and artists need
only to type in or draw a
rough idea of what they
conceive on a computer
terminal. An aeronautical
engineer, for example, can
instruct a computer to
immediately display and
rotate the rough design
idea of an airplane wing or
plane body from any angle.
He can then make further
refinements with the com–
puter.
Long distance tele–
phone dial ing would be
impossible without com–
puter routing. Without
computers it would con-
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sume in the United States
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the labor of all employed
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women over 18 years of
~
age to do this telephone
operation alone.
Far Out?
And more startling developments
lie in the years ahead, computer
developers promise.
Computer developers say we are
at the dawn of the supersmart
machine with "artificial intelli–
gence." Ai ready industrial robots
are taking over dangerous, emo–
tionally boring or highly repetitive
assembly line jobs. Whole factories
are run by them.
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