Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny: A 1972 Vision of Computing
Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)
John G. Kemeny, the co-creator of BASIC, explores the evolving relationship between humans and computers in this 1972 classic. He argues that computers should serve as tools to enhance human creativity and decision-making rather than replace human judgment. The book offers a forward-looking perspective on how technology can empower individuals while maintaining ethical standards and human agency in an increasingly automated world.
The computer is not a thinking machine; it is a tool that amplifies the thinking of those who use it.
- sedatk
I skimmed it, many quotable stuff[1], fascinating:
"Symbiote or Parasite?
The Popular Reaction to Computers
Most people would concede that computers are strange new entities that have a significant impact on human life. However, I would suspect that most of them would classify the species of computer as a harmful partner rather than as a symbiote. Why has popular reaction to computers been so negative?"
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"Next there is the common human fear that massive computers will be "Big Brother watching us." Indeed, there are a number of deep legal and moral questions
concerning invasion of privacy, but I will not attempt to discuss these in this book.1 It is important to remember, however, that computers do only what they are told to do. If governments and big businesses are allowed to
invade our privacy, it is our own fault for allowing them"
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"A great deal of work has gone on, under the general title of "artificial intelligence," to try to teach a higher form of intelligence to computers. The decade of the 1960s showed that this task is vastly more difficult than
some of the proponents of artificial intelligence had guessed. Although there have been a number of notable successes, in many cases the human effort to teach the computer has turned out to be' horrendous, and the amount of labor required for a computer to simulate human intelligence is discouragingly great. Often it
reaches a point at which the effort is simply not worthwhile."
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"On the other hand, it makes no s […]
- EvanAnderson
I got this book as a discard from my public library when I was a young kid, having only ever used standalone computers. The networked future it described re: home computers (which Kemeny characterized as terminals) seemed like fantasy. Later, after PCs decentralized and democratized computing it's references to large centralized computing resources seemed quaint and dated. Now it seems prescient. Personal computing feels like it was a flash in the pan.