Abstract
Since World War II, rapid advances in theory and hardware have given us a significant new technology of information processing with widespread applicability. Elec tronic computers are the most common manifestation of this new technology. Today, about 5,000 general-purpose com puters are in use in the United States, but more than 7,000 computer systems are on order. Computers are coming into use in such fields as machine teaching, language translation, medical diagnosis, air and ground traffic control, and weather forecasting. Prototypes of newer information systems promise pattern-recognition devices and self-programing machines. The most obvious advantages of automatic data processing are not likely to be the most important long-run effects of the tech niques. The most critical issues that arise out of the poten tialities of automation of information processing are not yet generally recognized.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.