ABSTRACT
Describing what a computer can do, the technical specifications of RAM and ROM, for instance, is not only descriptive of what a computer hard drive does, it also contains implicit cultural ideas about what we want a computer to be and how we want to relate to it. Why do we want/need faster and faster processors and greater and greater memory? The many answers to this question have to be sought in looking at the located purposes for which computers are used. The instances are many, from highly secretive military research contracts for intelligence gathering and weapons systems, through civil administrative record keeping and surveillance, to the use of computers in health and education, and in many forms of media communications.
