Who Works at Home, Why, and How You Can Join Them How ...

impact
DAVID D.THORNBURG
V
Personal
Computers
Have Changed
the World—
But Not
Enough
As we look at the proliferation of com
puters in our society, it's amazing to
realize that IBM once predicted that
in CD ROM, The New Papyrus, Microsoft
Press), and science fiction by authors like E.
M. Forester, most people thought that com
puters would be used purely for the compu
tations needed for science and industry'-
The advances of the past decade make
the situation 20 years ago look like the Dark
Ages by comparison. Computers that scien
tific researchers would have given their eye
teeth for are now sitting on the desks of sec
retaries and school children. Furthermore,
the rate of technological development is not
slowing down. My first Commodore PET
had 8K of RAM—a lot in those days. Now I
need at least one megabyte of RAM. What a
difference a decade makes.
With the rapid proliferation of comput
ers into our homes, schools, and workplaces.
we might ask if this technology has affected
our lifestyle. From my vantage point, it
seems to have produced very few obvious
changes. For example, many authors pre
dicted that widespread computer use would
cause a rebirth of cottage industry; allowing
information workers to commute by mo
dem instead of by car.
The advantages of working at home
seem compelling—reduced wear and tear on
your car, more time with your family, and
so on. The negative aspects of this arrange
ment—such as reduced interaction with
coworkers—were hoped to be resolved once
companies started implementing these
programs.
Interestingly, even though there is abso
lutely no technological reason standing in
the way of this scenario, few people arc try
ing this new lifestyle.
This is not to suggest that the computer
hasn't changed the workplace—it has. For
one thing, many more professionals (espe
cially younger ones) create their own docu
ments now. Secretarial support has expanded
to include page layout. Financial data that
once had to be explained by an accountant is
now available for almost any manager to see
and evaluate through spreadsheet programs.
The personal computer has allowed middle
managers to get closer to the nuts and bolts
of their companies and to chart their progress
the computing needs of our nation could be more closely than ever before.
met with just six computers.
Before laughing at the inaccuracy of this
prediction, it's important to realize that
there was no way the real impact of these
machines could have been predicted. Except
for Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think," that
in the July 1945 Atlantic Monthly (reprinted
One could argue that this is an evolu
tionary, not a revolutionary, change and
that the computer is making an essential
task easier. The fact remains, however, that
it's hard to imagine a business of any size
wouldn't benefit from a computer.
The use of computers in education is in
creasing. Unfortunately, the bulk of educa
tional computer use perpetuates a curriculum
developed for the Industrial, not the Infor
mation, Age. There are two reasons for this.
First, as large as the educational computer
market is, it reaches only a fraction of the
students in our schools. Ask yourself what
impact the pencil would have on education if
the student-to-pencil ratio was 20 to 1. Until
we see powerful computers that students car
ry like notebooks, educational computing
won't have come of age. Second, those com
puters that are in the classroom tend to be
used for drill or for tasks that could be cov
ered as well with workbooks. Much educa
tional computing seems to be devoted to
implementing eighteenth-century curriculum
with twentieth-century technology.
Many of us who were enthusiastic
about computers in the home saw the com
puter as a threat to the television (fools that
we were!). We thought the home computer
would provide a source of interactive (as op
posed to passive) entertainment and that it
would be an information resource for every
thing from the latest news and weather to
home shopping and electronic mail. While
there are a few brave souls using their home
computers in these innovative ways, most
computers are sitting in closets next to the
eight-track tape player.
Technolgy doesn't drive social change,
it only enables it. Changes in our lifestyle
have to come from personal motivation.
Our society is conservative in many re
spects, and this conservatism has ensured
that technological change will always out
strip social change.
This observation is not a complaint, by
the way. Social change has irreversible con
sequences: It's like opening Pandora's box—
once new ideas have been unleashed, they
can't be put back again. Those of us whose
lifestyle has been changed by computers
know the benefits of this technology. We
should be patient while waiting for the rest
of the world to catch up with us. q
10 COMPUTE