00100	                    TECHNOLOGY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
00200	
00300	
00400		This is a request for a grant of xxx over a period of yyy for
00500	research  and  development  of new technology aimed at increasing the
00600	amount that can be accomplished by a single individual.  Why this  is
00700	desirable and the opportunities for doing it will now be explained.
00800	
00900		First  we  shall give some examples of desirable increases in
01000	the power of an individual:
01100	
01200		1. An individual can build a house by his own efforts  if  he
01300	has learned certain skills and will work rather hard for a while. His
01400	ability to build the  house  is  dependent  on  the  availability  of
01500	certain  tools,  materials,  and  services,  but  nevertheless  these
01600	facilities are routinely available so that he can proceed on his  own
01700	schedule  if  he  has  the  money.  Part of our goal is to reduce the
01800	effort required for an individual to build a house himself and,  even
01900	more  important,  to increase his freedom of choice in what kind of a
02000	house it will be. New technology can help by providing computer-aided
02100	design, computer controlled fabrication of parts, construction robots
02200	for work on site, an improved information system that will allow more
02300	people  to  acquire  the necessary knowledge and skills, and improved
02400	standard services that will make more parts of  the  job  purchasable
02500	when wanted.
02600	
02700		2.  An individual can write a book by his own efforts, but to
02800	make it available to readers requires that he  convince  a  publisher
02900	that  money  is  to be made from it.  In (McCarthy 1970), I described
03000	how a home terminal  based  information  system  can  trivialize  the
03100	operation  of  publication,  so that any written document can be made
03200	publicly available just as this document is available to all users of
03300	the  time-sharing  system  of  the  Stanford  Artificial Intelligence
03400	Laboratory.
03500	
03600		3.  It  has  been  said  that  to  get  the  low   costs   of
03700	mass-produced   articles,   we   must  accept  uniformity.   This  is
03800	potentially no longer true, because computer controlled machines have
03900	the possibility of producing single objects at mass-production costs.
04000	This has already been partially realized  by  numerically  controlled
04100	machine tools, and there exist great possibilities of individualizing
04200	the design and production of clothing, furniture, and vehicles.
04300	
04400		4. The automobile has provided great freedom for  individuals
04500	to  go  where they want bringing what they want whenever they want to
04600	go there.  Now there are considerable demands to give up this freedom
04700	in the name of efficiency.  Instead, we shall explore the possibility
04800	of extending this freedom by introducing individual  flying  machines
04900	that will be able to land almost anywhere.
05000	
05100		5.  We  would  like to enhance the ability of someone with an
05200	idea for an invention to build a model to try out the idea.
05300	
05400		6. We would like to enhance the ability of a person  with  an
05500	idea  for  improving government or other institutional policy to test
05600	his idea for plausibility, and, if the idea still looks good, to  get
05700	the attention of people with the power to implement it.
05800	
05900		The above mentioned goals require development of a variety of
06000	technologies though all of them are dependent on computer  technology
06100	to  a  substantial extent.  It seems to us that the goal of enhancing
06200	the power of the individual fits  the  aspirations  of  most  of  the
06300	groups  that  are  dissatisfied  with  the  present state of American
06400	society except for the important goal of giving  the  have-nots  what
06500	the  haves  have.   Many of our specific proposals will contribute to
06600	this goal too.