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.cb THE REAL COMPUTER REVOLUTION


	The author of this article wishes to demonstrate his
social responsibility by discussing how to humanize the forthcoming
computer revolution.

	There has been much talk of the %2Computer Revolution%1, but
really it hasn't happened yet - not in the sense of the automobile
revoloution or the electricity revolution or even the TV revolution.
This is because computers affect our daily lives - apart from
the activities of computer professionals - only indirectly.
The indirect effect is important since many things would be
more expensive without it, but there is a real Computer Revolution
yet to come, and I think it is not far off.

	You will know the real computer revolution has occured
when everyone with a desk has a terminal on it - whether the
desk be at home or in his office.  When any information that is
available by making a telephone call or visiting a library is
available on line to anyone at any hour.  When no organization -
governmental or private - will dare ask you for a piece of
information that it already has in its files or which is in
public files.  When we no longer have a clerk in the purchasing
department of one company turning from a terminal that has told
her that more of something should be ordered, typing a purchase
order and sending it to another company where another clerk turns
to here terminal and retypes the information.

	I think this revolution is close, because we are nearing
the point where putting a terminal on a desk is as cheap as putting
a typewriter on it, and many institutions have terminal systems
used by people whose work does not involve terminals at all.

Let me elaborate on my own experience which is typical of many
users computers connected with the ARPA net.  I have a terminal
at my desk and another at home and can stay logged in 24 hours
a day if I want to with only minor inconvenience to other people.
Soon it won't even inconvenience others at all.  When I want to
send a message to anyone in our laboratory or on the ARPA net,
I have only to type his "name and address", type the message,
and he'll get it promptly if logged in and the next time he
logs in otherwise.  To me, and others confirm the phenomenon,
there are two kinds of people - those who can be reached in
this way and those who can't.  I receive about 100 messages a
month this way - more than I receive in the mail or as telephone
calls.  We also use the terminals for preparing reports and
for keeping the up-to-date forms of documents available
to many people.

	Granted that this revolution will occur, what
opportunities exist to make it benefit the largest number of
people and to make it as humane as possible?
Some people claim that computerization is necessarily anti-human
and propose to circumscribe it by regulations.  I think that
the general availability of terminals provides opportunities to
give them individual power over his own destiny and power to
understand and influence the organizations with which he deals
unprecedented in history.
In order to achieve this desirable outcome, we have to induce
organizations to see beyond doing what they have always done
more cheaply to the new possibilities of humanizing their
interactions with the public.

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	#. There ought to be a law requiring that all government
information subject to the Freedom of Information Act be publicly
available in computer files.  At present this information is kept in
reading rooms, and only organizations with offices in Washington have
access to most of it.  The cost of a terminal is low enough so that
putting it in computer files would vastly expand access even at the
present costs of terminal rental.

	#. Information about an individual to which he has a legal
right to access but which is otherwise private requires more
elaborate treatment.  Perhaps an individual could identify himself
at a post office
in the manner used when getting a passport and announce a password
which he will subsequently use when accessing such information.
A further elaboration is required if the posessor of the information
is not to have the password, but this is possible in at least
two ways with different disadvantages.