Brian McAndrews wrote:
>
> The following book review presents another view (and saves me a helluva
> lot of typing!).
>
> Brian McAndrews
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Computer Power and Human Reason
> by Joseph Weizenbaum
>
> San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman
> 1976
[snip]
In my opinion, _Computer Power and Human Reason_ remains a
challenge to our technistic way of thinking. It is as
relevant today as when it was written. The review
snipped here doesn't really do the book justice.
As far as WTO is concerned, Weisenbaum wrote in the
book that:
By coming along in the nick of time to process
data the way clerks were used to processing
it, but when the *quantity* of data exceeded
clerical capacity, the computer enabled the
existing bureaucratic structures of society
to survive when otherwise they would have
either collapsed or been transformed. --If by
"revolution" one understands a change in the
social relations between persons -- the
computer has been
ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL FORCES FOR SOCIAL
REACTION IN THE 20TH CENTURY.
His chapter on "incomprehensible programs" and their
social impact is highly admonitory.
His ending shows the difference between
judgment and calculation:
I hope that, as the discipline of computer
science will mature also, so that, whatever
computer scientists do, THEY WILL THINK ABOUT
IT, SO THAT THOSE WHO COME AFTER US SHALL NOT
WISH WE HAD NOT DONE IT.
This is an excellent, and highly readable
book, both for lay persons and for techies.
\brad mccormick
--
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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