ABSTRACT
This chapter describes, simply, the nature of computers, the use which public services have so far made of them, and the manner in which they may come to be developed in the years ahead. The computers in use in the public services are of many different types and sizes. Unfortunately no generally accepted criterion measuring computer power exists, although some have been attempted, to enable to compare one sector with another and so to have some idea of how computers might be used in each sector. Computers are used extensively in the public services—for example in assisting the control of electricity generation, in weapon systems and in air traffic control. In many sectors of the public services, the first administrative application of computers was to assist the work of payroll sections. The use of the computer as a calculating machine is essential to the systems, all of which involved some manipulation of data.
