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One engine factory in a suburb
of Tokyo employs a small crew of
human workmen during the day.
At the end of the day robots take
over the work and toil tirelessly
throughout the night under the
supervision of a lone overseer.
And for Educatlon, Too!
The pocket teaching computer will
soon be upon us in full force. Com–
puter developers are starting to
pump major sums of money into
investigating the nature of the teach–
ing process. The avowed purpose is
to develop powerful computer pro–
grams for education at all levels.
Computers can be programmed in
any subject to allow remedia! work
for slower learners and allow fast
learners to proceed at their own
pace. Computers can allow science
teachers, for instance, to present in a
classroom knowledge or experiments
that would otherwise be too expen–
sive, or dangerous.
Fierce competition by computer
developers worldwide, along with
mass microchip production, is rap–
idly cutting small computer cost s.
For the first time in history the
microcomputer offers the average
middle-class person in developed
nat ions the oppor tunity to reach
beyond their limited experience
and education and link into massive
data and in formation bases.
The United States and Japan are
working on microchips for comput–
ers that will each hold a million
words, something like the contents
of a small encyclopedia.
The information being squeezed
onto computer chips is so rapidly
developing that sorne developers
say whole books or libraries could
be placed on a chip or two.
Already developed is a machine
that uses an electronic scanner and
a speech synthesizer.
It
can satis–
factorily read aloud 200 different
type faces of printed material–
books, magazines, letters- at 250
words per minute. While yet fairly
cost ly (around $30,000), this devel–
opmen t makes it possible for a
blind person to read in privacy
almost anything desi red.
Translating languages is another
area of attempted computer appli–
cat ion. So far the nuances and
12
idioms of human languages and
dialects have proveo full of pitfalls
for computers. However, concepts
and terminology used in the scien–
t ific world are more precise and
universally understood by scien–
tists. It is envisioned that interna–
tional communications satellites
(computer controlled) could allow
more rapid translation and commu–
nications at least between scientists
of different nations.
Yet Other Trends
The small computer has important
economic advantages. First, small
computers consume insignificant
Computer developers
say we are at the dawn
of the supersmart
machine. ... Already
industrial robots are
taking over dangerous,
emotionally boring or
highly repetitive
assembly line jobs.
Whole factories are
run by them.
amounts of cheap raw materials
(silicon comes from sand). They
consume minute amounts of power
(they can run on small dry batter–
ies) and they require inches instead
of miles of electric wires as in older
computers. Mass product ion and
fierce competition make them
cheaper and cheaper. Lastly, they
are extremely portable and can be
put to endless uses.
Computer developers realize if
computer markets are to grow,
computers must be "friendly," easy
to use instead of seeming complex.
There is a new thrust to more "user
friendly" languages- words famil–
iar to tbe average person that can
be typed in to initiate computer
responses.
Alr ead y sorne white collar
employees work out of their bornes
with borne computer terminals.
Tbey write and communicate to
central offices or to other em–
ployees across the nation almost
ins ta ntaneously. This trend by
itself could revolutionize the way
much business is handled .
Another application could find
students opting for borne learning
by computer , instead of going into
an unsavory or costly school envi–
ronment. But tbe computer, here,
t reats only tbe effect. Computer
tecbnology cannot cbange the bad
classroom environment because it
cannot be programmed to resolve
moral and spiritual problems.
One computer specialist foresees
that, given the incentive of 100 mi
I–
lion or more customers, tbe price of
rooftop satellite communications
dishes and antennas for computers
could drop to $1 00, making them as
common as television antennas
today.
Medlcal Advances?
There seems almost no limit to the
application by the human mind of
computer technology. In the medí–
cal field it is predicted computers
will increasingly be used to help
doctors quickly compute diagnoses
and treatment of human ailments.
Sorne foresee implantable micro–
processors controll ing artificial or–
gans such as pancreas, or kidneys;
or mi cropumps controlled by
microprocessors regulating faulty
heart or circulatory valves. Tbis, of
course, is only treating effect, not
the causes of diseases.
Sorne developers predict that all
electrical signals produced in the
body wi ll soon be collected and
analyzed by doctors in the same
hand-held computer. "Someday we
will attach a computer directly to
the nervous system.... That is the
clear direction of research a nd
development ," reported
Computers
'82
(Mechanix lllustrated Home
Service Series, Number 3, p. 23).
Wbat's a lso contemplated by
medica! science is a pea-sized com–
puter implanted in the flesh of a
doctor. This miniscule computer
(Continued on page 35)
The PLAIN TRUTH