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	[This includes 4 different essays, not yet stirred together]


THE ENHANCEMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL


	In this section, I would like to explore the possiblities  of
increasing  the  capabilities of individuals.  We shall consider both
the provision of new tools and improvements in physiology.

	Why is it not possible for one person to do the following?:

	1.  Build a ten story building, a sophisticated jet airplane,
a car, or a large computer all by himself.

	2.  Convince the government to adopt a good new policy simply
by having good arguments  for  the  new  policy  without  having  any
political position or even political ability.

	3. Climb Mount Everest or walk across the Arctic alone.

	4. Swim the Atlantic.

	5. Live 500 years.

	6. Run 25 miles to work in the morning in an hour and back in
the afternoon without being especially tired.

	7. Have the information in the Library of Congress as readily
available at any time as if one remembered it.

	8.  Get  agreement  on  the  solution  to  social problems as
readily as agreement on engineering problems.

	It seems to me that any of these things would be  worthwhile,
and maybe all of them are possible. That they are worthwhile seems to
me  evident,  but  experience  shows  that  many  people   can   find
disadvantages  in anything.  Therefore, I shall go through the entire
list, saying somewhat pedantically why each one seems worthwhile, and
also how it may be possible.

	1. Build a large building or airplane or computer alone.
Of course, when and if this becomes feasible, some people will want
to do it, and that's certainly some justification.  However, there's
another important reason.  The best innovations are the work of
single brains.  When a job is too big to be done by one person,
it must take longer and lose some unity of conception.  The person
who proposes the idea must have leadership, salesmanship and political
abilities as well as industrial, scientific or artistic creativity.
Much has been lost because creative people often lack these other
abilities to the required degree.  When projects end up in the hands
of salesmen or politicians, much is lost even in the best circumstances.
Therefore, making it possible for one person to do jobs ordinarily
requiring large organizations is important.  How can we make it feasible?

	There is computer-aided design, robotics and the availability
of services.  The last item requires explanation.  If you want to build
something out of concrete, you have to build the forms.  However, pouring
the concrete is accomplished by telephoning the concrete company, and
they send a truckload of concrete in a transit-mix truck and pour it
into your forms.  If you are satisfied with the kinds of concrete
commercially available, you don't have much organizational work to do.
All you need is money.  The situation is similar with printed circuit
boards for computers and even-custom built integrated circuits.  In
either case you need only send a company specializing in this work,
a magnetic tape containing the design information.  All you need besides
money is a computer-aided design system capable of producing output
suitable for controlling their machines.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENHANCEMENT OF MAN

INTRODUCTION

	This is a book about what new technology should be developed in
the next few decades.  Everything proposed is believed to be feasible on
the basis of present scientific knowledge.
There are two approaches: one based of problems needing solution and
the other based on noticing technological opprtunities.  We will follow
both approaches.  An approach based on needs often leads to wishful
thinking or despair about unsolvable problems, and a purely technological
approach often wanders off into irrelevance.

	We shall begin with the goals new technology should be directed to
achieving:

	1. Obviously the minimal goal is human survival, and we shall devote
some attention to meeting threats to survival.  However, in my opinion,
humanity will survive even if it ignores my advice, and
there are plenty of technological resources left over for other
goals.

	2. The second goal is prosperity.  By this is meant the extension
of benefits already enjoyed by part of the population to people who don't
now have them, although I have no objection to the richest person becoming
yet richer.  The basis of widespread prosperity is productivity, and
this requires new technology in areas in which
facilities presently enjoyed by some depend on the labor of others to an
extent incompatible with the latter also enjoying them.  A facility
depending on servants such as a first class hotel
 is an obvious example, but there are others.

	3. The main theme of this book is new facilities not now enjoyed
by anyone, and most of what will be discussed comes under the heading
of the enhancement of human capabilities and potentialities.  Here are some
examples:
.item←0

	#. To the extent that we can automate routine activities, we can
make it possible for an individual or a small group to make something -
a car, a building, an airplane, or a computer - that presently requires
a large organization.  The larger the organization required to do something,
the more getting it done requires money or politics or both.

	#. To the extent that relevant information can be made universally
available, people can form their own opinions about policies.   If all
information on which the government or other large organizations is in
computer files and if not too much of the information is allowed to be
kept secret, then anyone can second guess these organizations.

	#. If the reasoning behind policy making is made objective, then
anyone can find flaws in it and suggest improvements.

	#. Life is too short, and the efforts to extend it should be
more systematic.

	#.

	We shall make many remarks that we know are controversial in
a rather casual way without explicit arguments for the position taken.
A remark known to be controversial will be indicated by a footnote
number or just by an asterisk.  The footnotes provide justification
when present, and the asterisked remarks are provided on a take-it-or-leave-it
basis.  Some will agree, others will disagree, and when someone agrees
with the remark, his reasons for agreeing may not be the same as those
motivating the remark in the first place.
#. Transportation
#. Communication
#. Computation
#. Conducting business
#. Housework and other chores of daily life
#. Education
#. politics

INTRODUCTION TO TECHNOLOGY DRAFTS

	These articles are  drafts of sections of a  forthcoming book
on  technology  on  society.    Some  of  them  are  in the  form  of
disconnected articles rather than integrated parts of the book,   but
this will be fixed.

	They are  made available  for comment now  in the  hopes that
the final book will be improved thereby.

	The thesis  of the book is that human life can be made better
by application of  inventions and improvements along  lines described
in the  book.  In so far as  can be done with the  effort I have been
able to  put  in, I  have  been as  specific  as I  could  about  the
inventions  and improvements  that will  make  these improvements  in
life.  All  the technology proposed is based on present science,  and
almost all  of it  is either  economically feasible  now  or will  be
provided some of  the improvements in productivity  also proposed are
realized.

	In  order to demonstrate  the thesis  of the book,   it would
seem that I ought to prove the following:

	1.  If certain new technology were available and  used,  then
human life would be improved.   This requires making explicit what is
presumed about what would constitute an improvement.

	2. It is appropriate to think about improvements rather  than
merely about how to avert disaster.

	I shall summarize my views about these points:

	1. Human  welfare has many  components not  all of which  are
affectable  by technology.   However,   the following  are worthwhile
goals and are affectable by technology:

	 a.  It is better to be rich than to be poor. Access  to more
material goods has improved human life  and can still do so. However,
the  American upper middle  class has reached a  point of diminishing
returns with respect to the  goods now available.  Much  more benefit
can  from   come  from  inventing  new  goods   than  from  increased
availability of the present ones.   This is not  true of most of  the
population  of the  world  and  of a  substantial  part of  the  U.S.
population.   The  pursuit of  both  goals will  be discussed  in the
book.

	 b. More personal freedom is better than less.  This personal
freedom  includes not  merely political  and civil  rights, but  also
opportunities.   Many  generally accepted  social goals such  as more
rights for  women, full equality  of opportunity,  and a better  life
for the old and incapacitated  can be more readily realized in a more
technological society.

	2. The  present American  high  material consumption  can  be
continued  and extended  to  the  rest  of the  world  and  sustained
indefinitely.  Moreover,  it is desirable to do so.  Conclusive proof
would require examination of more  specific resources than I can  do,
but I  hope to be  convincing about the  main problems of  energy and
material resources.


                    TECHNOLOGY AND THE INDIVIDUAL

	This is a request for a grant of xxx over a period of yyy for
research  and  development  of new technology aimed at increasing the
amount that can be accomplished by a single individual.  Why this  is
desirable and the opportunities for doing it will now be explained.

	First  we  shall give some examples of desirable increases in
the power of an individual:

	1. An individual can build a house by his own efforts  if  he
has learned certain skills and will work rather hard for a while. His
ability to build the  house  is  dependent  on  the  availability  of
certain  tools,  materials,  and  services,  but  nevertheless  these
facilities are routinely available so that he can proceed on his  own
schedule  if  he  has  the  money.  Part of our goal is to reduce the
effort required for an individual to build a house himself and,  even
more  important,  to increase his freedom of choice in what kind of a
house it will be. New technology can help by providing computer-aided
design, computer controlled fabrication of parts, construction robots
for work on site, an improved information system that will allow more
people  to  acquire  the necessary knowledge and skills, and improved
standard services that will make more parts of  the  job  purchasable
when wanted.

	2.  An individual can write a book by his own efforts, but to
make it available to readers requires that he  convince  a  publisher
that  money  is  to be made from it.  In (McCarthy 1970), I described
how a home terminal  based  information  system  can  trivialize  the
operation  of  publication,  so that any written document can be made
publicly available just as this document is available to all users of
the  time-sharing  system  of  the  Stanford  Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory.

	3.  It  has  been  said  that  to  get  the  low   costs   of
mass-produced   articles,   we   must  accept  uniformity.   This  is
potentially no longer true, because computer controlled machines have
the possibility of producing single objects at mass-production costs.
This has already been partially realized  by  numerically  controlled
machine tools, and there exist great possibilities of individualizing
the design and production of clothing, furniture, and vehicles.

	4. The automobile has provided great freedom for  individuals
to  go  where they want bringing what they want whenever they want to
go there.  Now there are considerable demands to give up this freedom
in the name of efficiency.  Instead, we shall explore the possibility
of extending this freedom by introducing individual  flying  machines
that will be able to land almost anywhere.

	5.  We  would  like to enhance the ability of someone with an
idea for an invention to build a model to try out the idea.

	6. We would like to enhance the ability of a person  with  an
idea  for  improving government or other institutional policy to test
his idea for plausibility, and, if the idea still looks good, to  get
the attention of people with the power to implement it.

	The above mentioned goals require development of a variety of
technologies though all of them are dependent on computer  technology
to  a  substantial extent.  It seems to us that the goal of enhancing
the power of the individual fits  the  aspirations  of  most  of  the
groups  that  are  dissatisfied  with  the  present state of American
society except for the important goal of giving  the  have-nots  what
the  haves  have.   Many of our specific proposals will contribute to
this goal too.