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.cb MASS PERSONAL COMPUTING REQUIRES COMMUNICATIONS AND DATA BASES

.ONCE CENTER
by John McCarthy

	The main potential applications of personal computers require
communication facilities, for which voice grade telephone lines
are adequate, and the existence of suitable data bases.
I think the stand-alone personal computer will remain a toy except
when upgraded to the level of a word-processing system with a good
typewriter and good local storage.  Even with this, its applications
will remain limited to those who do considerable writing.
For example, using a computer for personal bookkeeping will not find
much use if all the data must be entered by hand, and no-one will
keep an inventory of his pantry if he has to enter each can of soup
into the system and remove it when he eats.
With communication many things become possible such as:
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	#. If the texts of the books of a big library are accessible,
my need to own books is reduced, and impulses to learn something
can be satisfied.

	#. The availability of airline or theater tickets can
be determined and tickets ordered when the right
data bases become electronically accessible.

	#. If I receive bills directly into my home computer and
can pay them by initiating the funds transfer on my home computer,
then a bookkeeping system is worthwhile.

	#. The ability to send messages to users of other home
computers will give everyone the facilities now available to
users of the ARPA network.

	#. For the last five years, we have had a program at
the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory that
allows a person to find stories that have appeared in the
Associated Press and New York Times wire services in the last
two weeks.  The user types "carter*(israel+egypt)"
to get the stories that have contained the word "Carter"
and either of the words "Israel" or "Egypt".
This program was easy to provide, because the wire services
already distribute the news electronically as streams of characters.

	This abstract is on file at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory as PERSON[W78,JMC].  It can be accessed from anywhere
in the world by 30 character per second terminal or over the
ARPA net.  I can update it at any time.