ABSTRACT

The advance of electronic computers from the early room-sized giant brains to the supercomputers and desktop workstations has been dramatic. Writers and scientists have sought to grasp the cultural and evolutionary significance of computers. Beyond the simple view of the computer as a calculator and file cabinet, their thoughts reflect a human tendency to personify things, to embellish and mystify what a computer does, and, perhaps, to hope for more than the machines can become. As more and more power and control is transferred to the computers, Geoff Simons suggests it may be necessary to recognize the rights of the machines. The positive and utopian expectations for the human-computer symbiosis put forward by many futurists rest on the technical capabilities of the machines and their varied applications. The beginning of the nineteenth century, a variety of innovative and utopian schemes has been offered for rational planning and the solution of social problems.