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January,

computers

Vo l. 24, No . 1

and people

formerly Computers and Automation

IBM Versus AT&T:
Its Meaning To The
User and the Public
- A. G. W. Biddle
The Frictional Interface
Between Computers
and Society
- Robert W. Bemer
Languages Among
Computers, Machines, Animals,
and Men
- Lawrence M. Clark
The Teaching of Computer SC.ience: Master of Science Degree
- J. N. Sn yder
Nixon, Ford, and the
Political Assassinations in the United
States
- Richard E. Sprague

SNOWFLAKE VIGNETTE

by Judy Kin tzinger and Grace C. Hertlein

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THE PURPOSE OF FORUM

MULTI-ACCESS FORUM

• To give you, our readers, an opportunity to discuss
ideas that seem to you important.
• To express criticism or comments on what you find
published in our magazine .
• To help computer people and other people discuss
significant problems related to computers, data
processing, and their applications and implications,
including information engineering, professional behavior, and the pursuit of truth in input, output,
and processing.
Your participation is cordially invited.

"MAY I HAVE YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER, PLEASE?"

COMPUTER ART EXPOSITION ISSUES FOR 12 YEARS

Ed Burnett
Ed Burnett Consultant
176 Madison A venue
New York, NY 10016

Irene Angelico
Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies
Concordia Univ.
2010 Mackay
Montreal, P.O., Canada

In "The Evolution of Telephone Connecting" by
William J. McLoughlin, Jr., published in the September 1974 issue of "Computers and People", on page 18,
in the last sentence appears:
One wonders how long it will be before voice
controlled computers will be saying "May I
have your credit card number, please?

Editorial Note:
Reprints are not available but
back copies are, and they may be ordered from us.

As it happens this is already in force in Canada
where the computer is asking for data which can be
checked against the file, such as the address of
the individual or the telephone number of the individual, and if this number coincides, an order can
then be placed. If there is any fumbling, the computer has also been trained to say, "Just a mi nute.
I'll have one of those fabulous computers known as
a human clerk get in touch with you." This is now
being done by Sears and others up in Canada.

COMPUTER ART REPORT

Both the computer art on the front cover "Snowflake Vignette" and the computer art on page 3 "Apple Blossom Vignette" were made in the same way and
produced in two stages. The first stage was carried
out by Judy Kintzinger, a student in a computer art
course in the summer school of the University of
Iowa, Iowa City. In the first stage a design like
a leaf or an arrow or a flower was produced by computer program, and then repeated in a rotated pattern; then the entire design, as a larger module,
was again repeated in rotation and recorded on microfilm. The second stage was carried out by Grace C.
Hertlein, art editor of "Computers and People," and
instructor in Judy Kintzinger's course. In the
second stage, the design was enlarged photographically and manipulated in various ways to produce several partially overlapping prints with different degrees of lightness and darkness.

BOX NO. vs. P.O. BOX NO.

Rush Harp
Yankee Town Pond Road
Box 69
Bearsville, NY 12409

I am a consistent admirer of your philosophy and
magazine. However, your "Garbage In, Garbage Out"
and "Computers Don't Make Mistakes" views lead me
to mention a glaring error which is consistent with
human beings:
Your magazine is addressed wrong to me:
Box 69," instead of "Box 69".

"P.O.

Most box numbers are in a post office, for people
who live and work in cities. However, not so, out
here in the boondocks. P.O. Box 69 is another party
than I am. Box 69 Yankee Town Pond Road is my own
pet number. Nowhere or at any time does any of my
correspondence say P.O. Box, but it is a consistent
insistence of my publishers to include it. I love
your magazine and hate to have the copies fall into
other hands, due to your error.
Keep up the political assassination reporting.
am attempting to spread the word.

I

Editorial Note:
Rush Harp's copies are now addressed "Box 69" and not "P.O. Box 69". We regret the
error. P.S.: Computers OFTEN make errorsl -- E.C.B.
2

I am giving a course on the relationship of art
and science in the twentieth century, and will devote some time to computer art. If you would send
me reprints of the 12 annual computer art expositions (or issues if reprints are not available) ...
I would be most grateful.

SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS
AND THE HUMANITIES - CALL FOR PAPERS AND ART

This conference will be held on April 3-6, 1974,
at the Univ. of Southern Calif., Los Angeles, CA.
Papers are invited relating to computer applications
in the humanities (language, literature, music, history, archeology, culture, etc.) and in the areas of
art and education. Abstracts should be sent to:
ICCH/2, c/o Robert Dilligan, English Dept., USC,
Los Angeles, CA 90007. Creative artists in any
field of art are invited to send descriptions,
slides, and abstracts to Assoc. Prof. Grace C.
Hertlein, Computer Science Dept., Calif. State
Univ.-Chico, Chico, CA 95926.
To register for the conference, write to ICCH/2,
Founders Hall 407, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90007.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

IA

APPLE BLOSSOM VIGNETTE

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

by Judy Kintzinger and Grace C. Hertlein

3

Vol. 24, No. 1
January, 1975
Editor and
Publisher

Edmund C. Berkeley

Assistant
Editors

Barbara L. Chaffee
Linda Ladd Lovett
Neil D. Macdonald

Art Editor

Grace C. Hertlein

Software
Editor

Stewart B. Nelson

Contributing
Editors

George N. Arnovick
John Bennett
Moses M. Berlin
Andrew D. Booth
John W. Carr III
Ted Schoeters
Richard E. Sprague

London
Thomas Land
Correspondent
Advisory
Committee

Ed Burnett
James J. Cryan
Bernard Quint

Editorial
Offices

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St.
Newtonville, MA 02160
617-332-5453

Advertising
Contact

The Publisher
Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St.
Newtonville, MA 02160
617-332-5453

"Computers and
People,"
formerly
"Computers and Automation," is published
monthly, 12 issues per year, at 815 Washington St., Newtonville, MA 02160, by Berkeley
Enterprises, I nco Printed in U.S.A. Second
Class Postage paid at Boston, MA, and additional mailing points.
Subscription rates: Un ited States, $11.50
for one year, $22.00 for two years. Canada:
add $1 a year; Mexico, add $6 a year. Elsewhere:
one year, Swiss francs 60; order
through Reliable Information Publishing
Company, P.O. Box 52, 6354 Vitznau,
Switzerland.
NOTE: The above rates do not include
our publication "The Computer Directory
and Buyers' Guide".
If you elect to receive "The Computer Directory and Buyers'
Guide," please add $12.00 per year to you,r
subscription rate in U.S. and Canada, and
$15.00 in Mex ico; elsewhere, the price of
the Directory is Swiss francs 90, not including postage and handling;
please order
through Reliable I nformation Publishing
Company, P.O. Box 52, 6354 Vitznau,
Switzerland.
Please address mall to: Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington St., Newtonville, MA 02160, or to Berkeley Enterprises,
I nc., c/o Reliable I nformation Publishing
Co., P.O. Box 52, 6354 Vitznau, Switzerland.
Postmaster: Please send all forms 3579
to Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington St., Newtonville, MA 02160.
© Copyright 1975, by Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
Change of address:
If your address
changes, please send us both your new
address and your old address (as it appears on the magazine address imprint), and
allow three weeks for the change to be
made.

4

computers
and people

formerly Computers and Automation

The Computer Industry
20 IBM Versus AT&T: Its Meaning To the User and the Public
[A]
by A. G. W. Biddle, Encino, Calif.
A discussion of the costly implications for the computer
industry and for users, of giant monopoly in communication
and computing.
2 "May I Have Your Credit Card Number, Please?"
by Ed Burnett, Ed Burnett Consultant, New York, N.Y.

[F]

Computers and SOciety
14 The Frictional Interface Between Computers and Society
[A]
by Dr. Robert W. Berner, Honeywell Information Systems,
Phoenix, Ariz.
How computers and society intermesh, sometimes with
grinding of the gears.

Computers, Language, Thought, and Communication
7 Languages Among Computers, Machines, Animals, and Men
by Lawrence M. Clark, Framingham Centre, Mass.
What is common and what is different among many
kinds of communication systems that convey information and ideas?

[A]

6 "Can A Computer Be Creative?"
by Edmund C. Berkeley, Editor
An argument that both computers and human beings
very often have lOW-level creativity, and very rarely
have high-level creativity.

[E]

Computers, Art, and the Humanities
2 Second International Conference on Computers and the
Humanities - Call for Papers and Art

[F]

2 Computer Art Exposition Issues for 12 Years
[F]
by Irene Angelico, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies,
Concordia Univ., Montreal, Canada
The issues of Computers and People, formerly Computers
and Automation, which contain computer art.
1 Snowflake Vignette
by Judy Kintzinger and Grace C. Hertlein

[P]

3 Apple Blossom Vignette
by Judy Kintzinger and Grace C. Hertlein

[P]

2 Computer Art Report
An explanation of the construction of the two
vignettes.

[F]

The Computer Directory and Buyers' Guide, 1974
26

Notice

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

0.

The magazine of the design, applications, and implications of
information processing systems - and the pursuit of truth in
input, output, and processing, for the benefit of people.

25 The Teaching of Computer Science: Master of Science Degree [A]
by J. N. Snyder, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Urbana, III.
How one university is organizing a curriculum for
awarding a joint degree in computers and education

Applications of Computers

The Profession of Information Engineer and the Pursuit of Truth
27 Nixon, Ford, and the Political Assassinations in the
United States
by Richard E. Sprague, Hartsdale, N.Y.
Presenting "a reasonable hypothesis" for Gerald Ford's
pardon of Richard Nixon, and other extraord inary
events correlated with that.

[A]

19 Unsettling, Disturbing, Critical
Statement of policy by Computers and People

[F]

32 Games and Puzzles for Nimble Minds - and Computers
[C]
by Neil Macdonald, Assistant Editor
ALGORITHMO - Going from given input to given
output in an "unusual" situation.
GIZZMO - Some computational Jabberwocky.
MAXIMDIJ - Guessing a maxim expressed in digits.
NA YMAND IJ - A systematic pattern among randomness?
NUMBLES - Deciphering unknown digits from arithmetical relations.
SIXWORDO - Paraphrasing a passage into sentences of
not more than six words each.

Corrections

36
26

Notice
Entry form

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

G'0J>80&

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G~~

-*

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0

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iG.

It is planned that the annual index for
the 13 issues of Computers and People
(including The Computer Directory and
Buyers' Guide, 1974) will be published
early in 1975.
If any subscriber needs an annual index
urgently, before it is published, please
write to Index Ed itor, Computers and
People.

E .r-J E '( l
"" E !..
? E

Computers, Puzzles, and Games

Who's Who in Computers and Data Processing
6th Cumulative Edition, planned for 1975

.J

11-*

ANNUAL INDEX FOR 1974

34 Computing and Data Processing Newsletter
[C]
Cambridge, Mass., Uses Computer To Foil School Vandals
Braille Computer Terminal Developed in Australia
Three Communities in Massachusetts Make Savings
with Computerized School-Bus Routes
Many Radio Music Stations Are Run by Computer

2 Box No. vs. P.O. Box No.
by Rush Harp, Bearsville, N.Y.
A human error corrected for computer output.

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'0~*r.1Q

Computers and Education

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E'l.

Key
[A]
[C]

[E]
[F]

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[F]
[P]

Article
Monthly Column
Editorial
Forum
Picture

NOTICE
*0 ON YOUR ADDRESS IMPRINT
MEANS THAT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDES THE COMPUTER
DIRECTORY.
*N MEANS THAT
YOUR PRESENT SUBSCRIPTION
DOES NOT INCLUDE THE COMPUTER DIRECTORY.

5

EDITORIAL

HCAN A COMPUTER BE CREATIVE?"

In a recent discussion a friend of mine conceded
that a suitably programmed computer could be intelli~
gent and a good solver of problems and a very good
chess player, and more besides. But then he said:
I subscribe to a denotation of thought as including the activity which we generally refer
to as creativity, and this is a function which
is currently denied to computers. They can
do no more than they have been told to do, and
obedience is not creativity. It is in the creative realm that man, the living agent, is inimitable -- thus far.
I looked up defini tions of "create" and "creati v-

I ty":

create: to bring into existence; to bring about a course of action; to produce through
imaginative skill; to design, invent, devi se;
creative: productive; innovative; formative;
constructive; generative; having the quality of something created rather than imitated.
Then I read again parts of a famous essay "Mathematical Creation" by the great mathematician, Henri
Poincare (1854-1912). In one place he says:
What is mathematical creation? It does not
consist in making new combinations with mathematical entities already known. Anyone could
do that, but tha combinations would be infinite in number and most of them absolutely
without interest. To create consists precisely in not making useless combinations and in
making those which are useful and which are
only a small minority. Invention is discernment, choice.
A modern computer (which Poincare never knew about) ,can examine a million possible combinations
in less time than a human being can examine a few
hundred. Also, it can choose among the combinations,
i;e., exercise discernment, according to stated reqUirements,at least a thousand times faster than a
human being can.
So the argument, it seems to me, reduces to recognizing that there are really two kinds of creativity:
One kind we can call high-level creativity. This
is the kind that probably my friend and Poincare are
referring to. This is the kind displayed by an artist who uses oil colors to paint a portrait as good
as Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"; or a musician's
use of a sequence of musical notes to compose a sym6

phony as good as Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Nearly
all human beings and nearly all computer programs are
unable to display high-level creativity.
But some do. One instance of a computer program
that displays high-level creativity is the checkersplaying program of Dr. A. L. Samuels of Stanford
Univ. This program analyzes checkers situations in
depth, and in addition learns from experience, and
so this program has become a checkers champion; it
plays checkers far better than Dr. Samuels, its auththor. This program is not "obedient" about checkers;
it "knows" far more than Dr. Samuels does about checkers; it makes decisions for itself; and it revises
and improves those decisions in the light of experience.
Second, there is ordinary creativity. Suppose a
kindergarten teacher calls Johnny's pictures "creative". Well, a computer with a random number generator and a graphic output can do just as well producing a collection of paint splashes. Or suppose
a road crew shuts off a bridge for repairs and posts
signs here and there saying "detour". A computer
can do as well or better in locating the signs.
A great many people and a great many computer
programs can display ordinary creativity. When a
human being like Paul Erlich (1854-1915) makes 606
trials for a drug to cure syphilis, and finds that
No. 606 works, he is called creative. When a computer makes 23,793 trials and finds that the last
one meets best all the requirements, it should be
called creative also.
So the net conclusion to the argument, it seems
to me, is thi s :
- ordinary creativity is within the reach of
a great many human beings and a great many
computer programs;
high-level creativity is out of reach for
almost all human beings and almost all computer programs;
- the proposed criterion "men are creative,
computers are not" does not work, is not
effective, to distinguish men from computers;
- a computer can be creative. '

Edmund C. Berkeley
Editor

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

Languages Among Computers, Machines,

Animals, and Men
Lawrence M. Clark
835 Edmands Road
Framingham Centre, Mass. 01701

"We are like fish swimming in an ocean of natural language. We are thoroughly immersed
in that ocean, and often blind and ignorant about what lies outside of the part of the
ocean that we happen to know."

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Outline

2. Listening to a Computer

Part 1. A Survey of Languages

The computer may respond to you with a single
final answer, or it may respond to you not only with
the answer but also with many intermediate answers
and other pieces of information besides. In the case
of access to a computer through a time-shared terminal or non-shared console, you can get so much response that you reach rather full and adequate twoway communication.

Telling Computers What to Do
Listening to Computers
The Problem of Wrong Instructions
Artificial Languages for Instructing Computers
Ordinary Natural Language for Instructing Computers
Languages Among Machines That Are Not Computers
Languages Among Animals
Languages Among Men
Essential Features of a Natural Language
Part 2. The Designation of Meaning

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Linguistic Constraints Upon Thinking
The Words for "A Group of"
The Misleading of Thought by Language
The Words for Mathematical Ideas
How to Improve the Designation of Meaning

The purpose of this article is to report on a number of aspects of language, to discuss some significant problems of designation of meaning, and to indicate some probable future developments in language.
Computers make extensive use of language in order to
fulfil their functions; to place computer languages
in the perspective of languages in general may be
helpful.
1-

1. Telling Computers What to Do

Anybody who approaches a computer is compelled to
pay some attention to the subject of language. For
if one intends to have a computer do something useful, then one regularly has to tell it what to do and
how to do it; and this requires a system for giving
instructi ons.

It

Now you yourself can avoid telling the computer
how to do it -- by hiring a computer programmer, or
buying a software package, or through some equivalent
process. But still the person who does the programming or makes the software has to learn a system for
instructing the computer, a language.
This requirement implies that you (or your substitute) has to learn a system for communicating with
it. And a system for communicating is a language. So
the subject of languages in general is intimately associated with the use of computers.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

This is an important additional dimension of language; interaction. The computer says thing-s to you
and you say things to the computer. Interaction is
far more satisfying to human beings -- most of whom
love to talk. To talk to a computer and to have a
computer talk back rationally can be thrilling. This
experience "turns people on;" it is an experience
that helps deprived learners learn. See the references "The Personality of the Interactive Programmed
Computer" / 2/ and "Computers in Inner-Ci ty Classrooms"/5/.
The responses of a computer can be of several
styles. The least useful style happens when the
computer types just a questionmark when it has not
understood something as an instruction. Then you
wonder what you might have said to the computer that
it could not accept; and having come to some conclusion, you try a new command on the computer, to
see if that works. A much better response from the
computer happens when the computer types "Error 21,"
say, and then you look up error 21 in a numerical
list of errors, find it, read the description, realize what you did that was wrong, and act differently.
A still better system happens when the computer queries you, specifying different possibilities you
might have intended, and asks you -- then you are
able to choose among the possibilities, give the
computer a correct instruction, and proceed.
3. The Problem of Wrong Instructions

Every now and then you find out that a computer
has done exactly what you told it to do, but not
what you wanted it to do.
If you had been talking to a clerk about a calculation, the clerk would have known from his prior
experience that you could not have intended something
that you said; and so applying his experience or general knowledge or common sense, he would have changed
what you said to what you meant. Many rather famous
7

stories are told about how a computer did just what
it was told to do but not what the programmer intended. One such story is of the Mariner space probe
that was to fly by Mars and photograph it; but it
missed Mars by a great distance because somewhere
in the long series of instructions controlling it
a hyphen had been typed instead of a space.
To guard against errors of language, logic, or
human mistake-making, etc., many common sense procedures have evolved. For example in a system using
interactive business programs, when a clerk is using
a video data terminal to enter orders, on the screen
may appear something like:
Do you want to make any changes in this
order? (YIN).
Then the clerk looks over the figures, compares them
with the incoming purchase'order, and if he sees
nothing wrong, he types N. Then the screen once more
responds:
Last call: are you really sure all the
figures here are right? (YIN).
Then presumably the clerk compares once more, and
if it still appears that all is correct, this time
he has to type Y. At that point and only then, the
system accepts the data and enters the incoming order.
4. Artificial Languages for Instructing Computers

The need to instruct computers, to tell them what
to do and how to do it, has been responsible for the
development of a large number of artificial languages,
probably more than 2000 in all. At the beginning of
computers, for example in 1944 at the Harvard Computation Laboratory with the Harvard IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator Mark I, it was necessary
to write instructions in fine detail. These were
sequences of 24 ones and zeroes in bottom-level "machine language." These sequences of ones and zeroes
controlled 24 corresponding switches at the tape
reading station. As each instruction was read on 24
hole paper tape into the computer, the machine connected two locations A and B tb the bus and performed
operation C; each of A, Band C used eight one's and
zeroes.
Then special purpose languages came into use, many
of them expressed in "symbolic assembly language."
This would "assemble" a program on a specific computer, and would allow the programmer to designate locations where particular data was stored by using
its symbolic address rather than its actual address.
Then "general purpose" languages were developed, such
as FORTRAN (which was the first), BASIC, COBOL, PLII,
APL and a number of others, and probably over 300
more. These freed the programmer from the need to
specify particular locations for the storage of each
piece of information. These languages theoretically
and often in practice could be used without change
from one computer to another.
Some general purpose languages were developed to
apply to restricted classes of problems, such as:
AED, for Automated Engineering Design;
SIMSCRIPT II, for large problems in discrete
simulation;
COURSEWRITER, for computer-assisted instruction
in any field of knowledge; etc.
The languages for expressing algorithms (calculating rules and procedures) and the general purpose
languages for instructing computers have interwoven
with each other.
8

5. Ordinary Natural Language for
Instructing Computers
For more than 25 years it has been widely believed
and maintained that only rigorous, precise, exact language could be used for talking to computers and that
human beings therefore had to become inhumanly exact
and inhumanly logical in order to program computers.
This is not true.
About 1972 Warren Teitelman, then of Bolt Beranek
and Newman, Cambridge, Mass., developed a syst~'m
DWIM which was a "front end" for using the general
purpose programming language called LISP. LISP is
hard to use because it is unusually fussy in insisting on properly matched pairs of parentheses (mathematical parentheses placed around expressions). He
wrote a report "Do What I Mean: The Programmer's
Assistant." He described a number of techniques
incorporated in the front end which would "forgive"
a human programmer for his mistakes. It would either
automatically correct rather transparent mistakes, or
query in regard to a suggested interpretation. In
this way DWIM would remove much of the labor from
the programmer, enable him to concentrate his attention on higher level issues, and become markedly more
efficient in his use of LISP. See Reference 14.
Work in understanding ordinary natural language
is going on at a number of laboratories including
Mass. Inst. of Technology, IBM Corp., Stanford University, Xerox Corp., and elsewhere.
A series of articles on "Computer Programming Using Natural Language" has been published in this
magazi ne. See Reference / 3 / • The evi dence offered in these articles demonstrates that a computer
program can take in a great variety of non-rigorous
instructions (that are unambiguous), and produce
rigorous instructions from them.
Some of the work in being exact in programming is
being transferred from human program writing into
human questionnaire answering, which is easier. IBM
Corp. has a programming language called RPG II (Report Program Generator Model 2). In this language a
good deal of the. information for programming a computer to cover a particular business application consists of answers to a series of questions, yes or
no. After all the questions have been answered, the
series of yeses and noes are put into the computer
system that makes programs (an RPG II compiler). That
goes to work and produces the tailormade program that
covers the needs of the particular busin~ss application.
So much for the present discussion of the state
of computer languages. Let us turn now to considering languages in other areas.
6. Languages Among Machines that Are Not Computers
Many machines that are never thought of as computers also require a system for communicating between the machine and a human being, and between
the machine and the environment. An ordinary motor
car driven by an ordinary human being is such a machine. It contains many pieces of apparatus (odometer, speedometer, fuel gauge, oil pressure indicator,
etc.) for communicating information to the driver,
and for receiving instructions from the driver (steering wheel, gear shift handle, brake pedal, etc.)
Some machines act in complex ways quite indepen~
dently of any human operators. Such machines detect
information (through sensors) and perform actions
that work on the environment (through acting elements
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

like valves, rods, bells, etc.). They all contain
somewhere a black box (or more than one black box)
where the incoming signals from sensors are appropriately associated with the outgoing signals to acting elements.
Such machines are often called servomechanisms or
automata or robots. A very simple example of a robot
is the heating system in an ordinary building -- with
its thermostats, pilot flame, valves, relays, etc. A
very complex example of a robot is the dial telephone
system of North America. That may well be the largest
and most complex robot ever made.
The languages spoken inside this robot are sets
of ones and zeroes for some purposes, sets of tones
(as in the touchtone telephone) for other purposes,
and probably more.
Ordinarily in these languages there will be just
one word or expression to express each idea or meaning in the same way as in mathematics, where the expression 2 is always used for the idea two. But when
the dial telephone system starts talking to a human
user, it will translate into one of the ordinary natural languages, and utter sounds. For example, nowadays when I dial a telephone number that has been
changed, the system (doubtless a computer connected
to a recording of a voice) tells me the digits of the
new number, and a little later in the recorded message it repeats those digits once more.
7. Languages Among Animals

o

Many kinds of insects, birds, and animals have an
important degree of language. One interesting source
of information is the book "King Solomon's Ring" by
the Austrian naturalist Konrad Lorentz. See reference/lO~ A colony of jackdaws that nested on and
near his house were able to do a fair amount of communicating on a number of subjects. Repeatedly one
of the jackdaws, who was lonely, in her song seemed to
carryon a soliloquy about "good old times," until
finally one day her mate, a jackdaw who had been
lost for a long time from the colony, returned from
migration, and resumed his relationship with the
colony and with her.
Ants succeed in conveying information to each
other. The language appears to consist of different
chemicals and smells that convey signals; probably
also the motions of ant antennae convey signals. The
number of possible choices of information to be conveyed is probably rather small, perhaps no more than
several dozen. One August I observed an anthill
which was eleven feet across, located near Nyack, N.Y.
This anthill maintained herds of aphids on scores of
leaves of bushes a hundred feet distant. The herds
of aphids were tended by the ants. There were well
traveled trails in the deep grass between the aphid
farms and the anthill. Such organization implies a
system of communicating information; and any such
system is a language.
Bees undeniably have a language that conveys ideas.
Some excellent studies by the Austrian investigator
Karl Von Fritsch, have shown that bees convey to
other bees the distance and the direction from the
hive of especially attractive food. He began his
experiments by setting out a dish of scented sugar
water at a certain distance and direction from a bee
hive. For two or three days no hees found the dish.
Then a few bees did find the dish: he marked them
with paint. Soon a great many more bees not marked
with paint came to the dish of sugar water. He varied the location of the dish, and observed the behavior of the painted bees within the hive. The hive
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

had been made with a glass side: he could watch with
red light invisible to the bees. The scout bees
returning to their hive seemed excited: they carried
out an elaborate "dance," which other bees detected
with their antennae. The dance was either a round
dance, or else a wagging dance: the number of rounds
and the number of waggings in an interval of time indicated the relative distance of the sugar water. The
direction of the sugar water was indicated by the
direction of the dance of the scout bees, in this way:
if the hive was horizontal, the direction of the scout
bee's forward motion in the dance was the same as the
direction of the food: if the hive was vertical, then
the direction of the dance of the scout bee was at an
angle from the vertical which was the same as the angle of the direction of the food from the direction
of the sun.
According to investigators, birds have learned
languages up to several hundred words: most of this
learning is parroting, utterance without attention
to meaning. The method of teaching a bird any words
is affectionate and loving rearing of the bird in
the way that a mother brings up her young. Occasionally, however, the bird will use words with their
proper meanings, like saying "Don't go away" to the
investigator.
Monkeys that live in families in the tropics apparently use a language consisting of maybe six to
a dozen signals. Wolves that live in families and
packs have a degree of language by which they give
and receive information. See the book "Never Cry
Wolf" by Farley Mowat. /12/
Chimpanzees in captivity, according to some investigators, have about twenty words or signals. A
story is told that one scientist having learned some
chimpanzee language at the Yerkes laboratory made
himself welcome at once among a group of chimpanzees
in the London zoo by talking to them in chimpanzee
language.
Chimpanzees also show evidence of being able to
deal with nonverbal symbols. At the Yerkes Regional
Primate Research Center, Athens, Ga., a chimpanzee
named Lana has been "talking" with the aid of a computer and a new language called Yerkish created especially for her. She can make grammatically correct
requests for food and entertainmerit by punching out
sentences on a special vertical keyboard: and she
can "read" in her language. See the report "Communication -- Three-Way: Chimpanzee, Man, Computer,"
Reference/ 7/.
8. Languages Among Man

Of all the tools of human beings, language, equipment for communicating, is probably the most ancient
and the most indispensable. In order for the members
of a species to work together in complicated ways,
language is necessary. In order for the young of
the species to be trained, not only by examples and
sensations, but also by ideas and commands, language
is necessary. With language the adults teaching the
young do not have to find and illustrate all the
situations for instruction: some of the situations
can be dealt with by words alone. Finally, the separate items of language can be used as markers, as
counters, for the process of reasoning and thinking.
What is language? Basically, language is equipment for referring to and handling all the ideas,
situations, and experiences that a society is interested in. Language deals with the experiences and
situations that occur in the culture of that society.

9

What kind of equipment? In the case of nearly all
human languages, the equipment basically consists of
sounds that human beings can-utter and hear, and to
which meanings have been attached by convention. The
convention is an unspoken general agreement among the
members of the society which is learned thoroughly as
the young people grow up in the society.
The purposes of human language are: communicating,
that is, conveying ideas, asking questions and getting answers; reasoning; describing strange ideas in
terms of familiar ones; expressing emotions and feelings; expressing politeness and ceremony.
Language contributes so very much to the thinking
of human beings that we are seldom aware of all that
it does do. Beginning with our earliest years, language teaches us, educates uS,focuses our attention,
and commands us to deal with the ideas that language
alludes to. Language provides hooks for hanging our
ideas on, boxes for putting them in, and trays for
moving them around. Language is a mirror of the
thoughts we have, and it reflects them quite faithfully and impartially -- both wh~n we are right and
wh,n we are mistaken.
The languages actually spoken by the groups of
human beings allover this world have been studied
to a considerable extent. An inventory of them as
of about 1950 is as shown in Table 1.
Table 1

. Approximate No. of Languages Spoken
Europe and Asia
Africa
North America
South America
Total

720

530
240
~

1730

Among these languages there is a tremendous variety. Many of them make neat and felicitous distinctions which are absent in English; many of them
ignore distinctions which are present in English.
9. Essential Features of a Natural Language
~mid all these variations, what is essential in
a language?

Everyone of the known languages is made up of
sounds. The most convenient equipment for symbolizing ideas has always been the sounds that human beings could utter and hear. Other languages such as
writing are secondary.
The sounds that occur in languages have been inventoried and studied. There are perhaps some 60
sounds and some 60 styles of modifying them, making
mathematically 3600 combinations. These elements
are technically called phones, and the study of them
phonetics.
In anyone language, a cluster of phones may be
treated by the speakers of that language as having
the same significance. In English for example, a
cluster of different ways for letting air explode
through the lips is designated as "b" and another
cluster of similar sounds is designated as "p", and
they are distinguished by speakers of English; in
Dutch this difference is not observed, "p" and "b"
are not distinguished.
In any language each cluster of sounds selected
by the language as significant is called a phoneme,
10

and the study of them is called phonemics.
do not have meanings in themselves.

Phonemes

Every language can be organized into phonemes.
The number of phonemes present in a language ranges
from 17 in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines,
to 45 in Navaho, an American Indian language of Arizona. There are about 40 phonemes in English, about
17 of vowel type, and 23 of consonant type.
In every language phonemes are arranged and assembled into words and word elements. Words and word
elements are technically called morphemes, units of
form; morphemes are those arrangements of phonemes
which have meaning in the language.
Every language consists of a large set of words
(morphemes). A collection of all the words (morphemes) in a language is a dictionary. A collection
of all the meanings represented among the words in
a language is a lexicon. Every known Inaguage has
at least 5,000 words, and English, the largest language, contains over 500,000 words.
Every language recognizes single complete linguistic utterances -- which are often called sentences, although that term is not inclusive enough.
Every language has rules for assembling words and
word elements into utterances. These rules are called grammar and syntax. Every known language has intricate grammer; some languages have grammar much
more intricate than others. English has lost most
of the old grammar that it used to have. This was
a fortunate result of social conditions in the 300
years following the Norman conquest of England in
1066.
Every language has the power to express a large
part of any situation occurring within the social
cuI ture in which, it belongs. In addi tion it has
the power to create new expressions. Thus as the
culture of a society develops and changes, and new
ideas need to be referred to, these new ideas also
may be expressed.
Every language summarizes experiences that are
not the same but are much alike into single words
'or expressions that are, to the extent of the summarizing, vague. For example, nearly every language
has a word for "the sun"; and all the different manifestations of the sun at dawn, at noonday, at sunset, in clouds, or in clear sky are summarized and
lumped together under one word, the word for "sun."
But in at least one American Indian language, that
word also refers to "moon"; the word in fact means
"large shining heavenly object," and speakers rely
on the context to show which one of the two they
mean.
Every language has devices for classifying situations and experiences so that they can be described
using a finite number of expressions. The devices
for classifying situations and experiences vary
greatly from language to language. Some of the
classifications are obligatory and some are optional.
It is reasonable to believe that the language that
has the fewest obligatory classifications is the best.
English has at least six obligatory classifications:
they include number, gender, case, tense, and some
other particulars.
Latin has more. For example; in Latin you cannot
say "Who did it?" without specifying the gender of
"who" and' the number of "who." So there are four
ways of saying this, and the speaker must decide
which one to say. Even in English we may be reCOMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

\

-;4

quired to specify "animate or inanimate." We run into the problem when we have to say "who or what made
this letter?" In Chinese, one does not have to specify singular or plural unless one desires to. In
Chinese, the word for "horse" means "horse" or "horses"; optional words tell the listener whether the
speaker refers to one or more horses. Chinese in
this respect is certainly better than English.
Classifications that make no difference in the
social culture of the people speaking the langu~ge
will not be found. Classifications that are important in their culture will be fully worked out. For
example, in Latin there were two words for "uncle";
these were "atruus" or "avunculus" depending on whetherthe uncle was the father's brother or the mother's brother. But in English this distinction is
almost never thought of, much less registered in
separate words, because in our culture it is very
unimportant whether an uncle is via the mother or
the father.
The devices used for expressing grammar vary from
language to language. Some languages use order almost to the exclusion of other devices. Some use
suffixes or prefixes that tell which terms belong
together, the principle of concord. For example,
Edward Sapir, a former professor of languages at
Yale, gives an example from the Bantu language of
Africa. He says:
In such a sentence as "that fierce lion who
. came here is dead," the class of "lion,"
which we may call the animal class, would
be referred to by concording prefixes no
less than six times:
in "that," in "fierce,"
in "lion," in "who," in "came" and in "dead."
Distinctions which are considered obligatory in
one language may be almost missing from another.
For example, the distinction as to "definite" or
"indefini te" which in Engli sh we must always express
by "the" or "a" or in some other equivalent way is
missing from Latin~ although Latin does have demonstratives. And of course in the English of newspaper headlines, this distinction also disappears
as in "man bi tes dog" -- wri ter and reader alike
take it as part of the context, to be reasoned out
only if important.
Distinction as to parts of speech varies greatly
from one language to another. Most languages however
have noun-like and verb-like forms. Some languages
push adjectives into verbs, others push them into
nouns. We have no single verb for "is red," although
we do have a single verb that means "becomes red,"
namely "reddens." In some languages all adj ecti ves
are verbs in this fashion.
Franz Boas, a great anthropologist, said that
some principles of grammar are the same allover
the world. He says:
The relational functions of grammar have certain principles in common allover the world.
Here belong for instance the relations between
subject and predicate, noun and attribute,
verb and adverb, and the relation of the experience to the speaker (the self) and to
others -- that is, the relation expressed by
the pronouns I, you, and he. The methods by
means of which these and other relations are
expressed vary very much, but they are necessary elements of every grammar.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

Part 2. The Designation of Meaning
1. Linguistic Constraints Upon Thinking

In spite of the enormous richness of developed
modern languages, of which English is perhaps the
best example, natural language constrains, bends,
distorts, that which we may want to say.
Sometimes we cannot say what we want to say without inventing new words and new forms of expression.
The English language actually adds about 1000 to 3000
new words, new uses of old words, and new expressions
to the language in every calendar year. A fine report on these words introduced since 1963 is in the
book by Clarence Barnhart. See reference/ 1 /.
Edward Sapir (1884-1939), an American anthropologist, and a professor at Yale University, linguist,
and author, once wrote as follows, regarding the
important influence of language on human beings:
Human beings do not live in the objective
world alone, nor alone in the world of social
activity as ordinarily understood, but are
very much at the mercy of the particular lan~
guage which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality
essentially without the use of language and
that language is merely an incidental means
of solving specific problems of communication
or reflection. The fact of the matter is
that the "real world" is to a large extent
unconsciously built up on the language habits
of the group •..• We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because
the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.
In a basic sense, human beings deeply need more
adaptable, less conventional patterns in their
minds, so as to think better. We need to escape
limitations from culture, history, language, propaganda, etc. Consider George Orwell's remark in
"1984" (published by Harcourt Brace, New Xork, many
editions):
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the worldview and mental habits proper to the devotees
of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of
thought impossible.
2. The Words for "A Group of"

Let us take a specific example of linguistic constraint. Suppose we read a short report, first in
one style, then in a second style:
One afternoon in August, John Jones drove
away from New York in his car, surrounded by
a mob of other cars. Flying overhead was a
drove of airplanes. Soon he overtook a travelling circus, passing a swarm of elephants, a
flock of dogs, and a bevy of trucks. As the
sun set, he saw in the west a herd of rosy
red clouds.
In the second style, here is the same report:
One afternoon in August, John Jones drove away
from New York in his car, surrounded by a group
of other cars. Flying overhead was a group of
airplanes. Soon he overtook a travelling circus, passing a group of elephants, a group of
dogs, and a group of trucks. As the sun set,
11

he saw in the west a group of rosy red clouds.
In this example, we see what happens when we deliberately scramble the customs of English in using
words that mean "a group of," words like "mob, drove,
swarm, flock, bevy, herd." English contains forty or
fifty such words with different connotations. For
example, "swarm" implies "a group of bees or insects" and "herd" implies "a group of large animals."
Of course, there is almost no logical sense in varying the word meaning "a group of" depending on the
kind of thing being grouped. But as long as writers
want to write "good usage" and prefer to obey present
happenstance usage in regard to words like these, so
long will the expression of logical ideas be clouded,
and thinking be constrained, bent, by the language
of "good usage."
3. The Misleading of Thought by Language

Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941), a graduate of
Mass. Inst. of Technology, worked as an engineer in
a fire insurance company in Hartford, Conn.; but a
great deal of his avocational research and thinking
was in the field of language and linguistics. The
following passage is taken (with minor changes) from
his article "The Relation of Habitual Thought and
Behavior to Language" included in "Language, Culture, and Personality: Essays in Memory of Edward
Sapir," edited by Leslie Spier, published by the
Sapir Memorial Publication Fund, Menasha, Wisconsin,
1941 :
((Beginning of Quotation))

An accepted pattern of using words is often prior
to certain lines of thinking and forms of behavior.
A man who assents to this statement often sees in
such a statement nothing more than a platitudinous
recognition of the hypnotic power of philosophical
and learned terminology on the one hand, or of
catchwords, slogans, and rallying cries on the
other. To see only thus far is to miss the point
of one of the important interconnections which Sapir
saw between language, culture, and psychology. It
is not so much in these special uses of language as
in its constant ways of arranging data and its most
ordinary everyday analysis of phenomena that we
need to recognize the influence it has on other
activities, cultural and personal.
In the course of my professional work for a fire
insurance company, I undertook the task of analyzing
many hundreds of reports of circumstances surrounding the start of fires, and in some cases, of explosions. My analysis was directed toward purely
physical conditions, such as defective wiring, presence or lack of air spaces between metal flues and
woodwork, etc., and the results were presented in
these terms. Indeed it was undertaken with no thought
that any other significances would or could be revealed.
In due course it became evident that not only a
physical situation as physics, but the meaning of
that situation to people, was sometimes a factor,
through the behavior of the people, in the start of
the fire. And this factor of meaning was clearest
when it was a LINGUISTIC MEANING, residing in the
name or the linguistic description commonly applied
to the situation.
a. Empty Gasoline Drums. Thus, around a storage
of what are called "gasoline drums," behavior will
tend to a certain type, that is, great care will be
exercised; while around a storage of what are called
"empty gasoline drums," it wi 11 tend to be different
12

-- careless, with little repression of smoking or of
tossing cigarette stubs about. Yet the "empty" drums
are perhaps the more dangerous, since they contain
explosive vapor. Physically, the situation is hazardous; but the linguistic analysis according to regular analogy must employ the word "empty," which inevitably suggests lack of hazard. The word "empty"
is used in two linguistic patterns: (1) as a virtual
synonym for "null and void, negative, inert," (2)
applied to analysis of physical situations without
regard to, e.g., vapor, liquid vestiges, or stray
rubbish, in the container. The situation is named
in one pattern (2) and the name is then "acted out"
or "lived up to" in another (1), thi s being a general formula for the linguistic conditioning of behavior into hazardous forms.
b. Limestone. In a wood distillation plant the
metal stills were insulated with a covering prepared
from limestone and called at the plant "spun limestone." After a period of use, the fire below one
of the stills spread to the "limestone," which to
everyone's great surprise burned vigorously. Exposure to acetic acid fumes from the stills had converted part of the limestone (calcium carbonate) to
calcium acetate. This when heated in a fire decomposes, forming inflammable acetone. Behavior that
tolerated fire close to the covering was induced by
use of the name "limestone," which because it ends
in "-stone" implies noncombustibi Ii ty.
c. Pool of Water. A tannery discharged waste
water containing animal matter into an outdoor settling basin partly open. This situation is one that
ordinarily would be verbalized as "pool of water."
A workman had occasion to light a blowtorch nearby,
and threw his match into the water. But the decomposing waste matter was evolving gas under the wood
cover, so that the setup was the reverse. of "watery".
An instant flare of flame ignited the woodwork, and
the fire quickly spread into the adjoining building.
Such examples, which could be greatly multiplied,
will suffice to show how the cue to a certain line
of behavior is often given by the analogies of the
linguistic formula in which the situation is spoken
of, and by which to some degree it is analyzed,
classified, and allotted its place in that world
which is "to a large extent unconsciously built up
on the language habits of the group." And we always
assume that the linguistic analysis made by our
group reflects reality better than it does.
((End of Quotation))

4. The Words for Mathematical Ideas

One of the clearest examples of the need to break
away from the restraints of ordinary natural language
is the development of mathematical words for mathematical ideas. The special linguistic ways in which
mathematicians talk about mathematics have developed
for more than 2000 years.
For example, the formula
A =1rr2

is the mathematical form for the English statement
The area of a circle is equal to 3.1416 •••
times the square of the radius of the circle.
A formula which has had a name for more than 2000
years is the Pythagorean Theorem:
h2 = a2 + b2
In English this is:
The area of the square constructed on the
hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal
to the sum of the areas of the squares constructed on the base and on the altitude.
COMPUTE RS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

These are examples of the brevity and perspicuity of
mathematical language, which is a forerunner of much
of the language used for describing algorithms to be
used on computers.
Mathematics is very largely a language that has
three special properties. First, its chief subject
matter is certain kinds of abstract elements -- numbers, lines, points, etc. -- and the relations of
these elements. Second, its chief property is that
it makes use of very efficient symbols, symbols that
one can calculate with to a vast extent. Third, its
chief purpose is to determine necessary consequences
from given assumptions.
All these properties are of course present to
some extent in ordinary language. In ordinary language, you can talk to some extent about numbers,
lines, points, etc., and their relations. In ordinary language, you can even calculate to some extent.
And, using ordinary language, you are often interested in deducing the necessary consequences of some
suppositions. Accordingly the difference between
mathematics and ordinary language is partly a difference of quality, but also a difference of degree.
It is reasonable to believe that if you have a desirable property in mathematical language, you may
be able to arrange the same desirable property in
language.
We have mentioned calculation. What do we mean
by it? We mean that we can manipulate symbols according to rules that pay little attention to meanings, and that when we come out with results at the
end of the process of manipulation, then our symbols
often apply truthfully to real situations. People
can and do calculate with ordinary words, even when
they are not sure of the meanings of these words.
Here is an example taken from "Language and Communication" by George A. Miller:
Suppose we learn on good authority that all
mantelops are lespeads and that all lespeads
hile. We can conclude immediately that all
mantelops hile, and that any grimpet that
does not hile certainly is not a mantelop.
There may of course be lespeads that aren't
mantelops, so hiling is not a sure sign of
mantelopicity.
Then he says:
The fact that we have no idea what we are talking about does not stop us from talking. We
simply operate on names and properties according to the rules governing the use of logical
terms.
And he might very well add, though he did not say
so, that the reasoning is perfect, and that all we
have to do to get truthful uses of the statements
about "mantelops, lespeads, hiling, grimpets" is to
interpret the words in suitable ways.
5. How to Improve the Designation of Meaning

How shall we improve the designation of meaning?
and the description of reality so that we can more
faithfully describe it and deal with it?
Of course this is an old problem. Many people
work on it both consciously and unconsciously from
time to time. A person who coins a new and useful
expression is helping in this process. In the United
States some time in the 1830's the expression "OK"
was coined. No authority is quite sure of the derivation. Now the word is internationally used, and

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

everywhere understood and accepted. It filled a
need. And it is much clearer than "yes" and "all
right. "
There is continual competition in language between different expressions for closely related
ideas. The competition often produces two words
where there was just one before. "Of" and "off"
for example are both derived from the same word.
Differentiation is the name given to the linguistic
process.
The movement for the liberation of women has produced the word "Ms." (pronounced "miz") so that a
woman can be addressed politely without the designation of whether or not she is married. This is obviously a useful and democratic improvement and
probably is permanent. Correspondingly, "spokesman"
and "chairman" have sprouted the words "spokesuerson"
and "chairperson." Whether these three-syllable
words offered in place of two-syllable words will
survive is a question; but the words might survive.
Perhaps the most important process for improving
the designation of meaning is paraphrasing, translating from one set of words, often with highly
colored overtones, into words that are much more
neutral and avoid those overtones. "Shit" becomes
"excrement". "Pigheaded fool" becomes "stubborn
and foolish person". "The morgue" of a hospital
becomes "Ward X".
Paraphrasing -- translating expressions into
other expressions that "say the same thing but say
it better" -- is a key process.
A computer can do paraphrasing. When a program
is written in FORTRAN,the computer by means of what
is called a FOInRAN compiler can paraphrase that
program into a machine language program that will
enable that computer to solve that type or problem.
The program "DWIM," "Do What I Mean," mentioned
above can do paraphrasing. It will accept many
variations of computer input from a human being and
convert them all into a single standard computer input. This is the early seed of a great development
'in computer applications.
We are like fish swimming in an ocean of natural
language. We are thoroughly immersed in that ocean,
and often blind and ignorant about what lies outside
of the part of the ocean that we happen to know.
The development of computer paraphrasing of expressions, statements and discourse in ordinary natural language will take us a long way. Like lung
fish we shall climb out of the ocean, and begin to
obtain a much greater and more correct picture of
the world, eventually including land, atmosphere,
and space.

REFERENCES
1. Barnhart, Clarence L., "The Barnhart Dictionary
of New English since 1963", Harper & Row, New York,
NY, 1973, '510 pp.
2. Berkeley, Edmund C., "The Personali ty of the Interactive Programmed Computer," in "Computers and
Automation," Dec., 1969
3. Berkeley, Edmund C., Andy Langer, and Casper Otten, "Computer Programming Using Natural Language,"
in "Computers and Automation" or "Computers and
People": Part I, Jun, 1973, p.lO; Part 2, Jul, 1973,
p.18; Part 3, Aug, 1973, p.28; Part ~, Aug, 1974,
p.2; Part 5, Oct, 1974, p.30
(please turn to page 19)
13

The Frictional Interface Between
Computers and Society
Dr. Robert W. Bemer
Honeywell Information Systems
Phoenix, AZ USA

"We all must cease to make wrong decisions on a large scale because
mankind can no longer afford it. Mankind's resources are highly
limited, and we can no longer squander them." - V. A. Trapeznikov

For purposes of this article I propose a simple
and perhaps novel classification of computer applications -- in three classes.

A pair of questions indicates a possible dilemma:

Q:

The Computer Advises

A:
Applications that do not lead to decisions affecting humans directly -- Examples come largely from
the field of numerical computation, the earliest category of usage. Computational results that might
tend to prove or lead to a theory; calculations for
spaceship or missile design (they don't have to be
built or launched); programs for playing games, or
associating payoffs with strategies, etc. We may
term such computation "advisory."
The Computer Proposes Decisions

Applications with computational results that lead
to decisions by humans -- Some of these can get very
close to integration into human affairs. For example, someone may be denied credit or refused an employment opportunity. It has turned out, in much
practice, that the human decision to be taken may
be perfunctory or mindless. Nevertheless there is
recourse, no matter how time-consuming and difficult
it may be, and regardless of what body of law may
need to be enacted to protect people in such circumstances.
The Computer Decides, and if not
Countermanded Ac~s (the Robot)

Applications where the computer has been previously programmed to take a decision and take an action,
and will in fact act unless countermanded in time
-- Examples are online patient monitoring, control
of nuclear power plants, air traffic control and collision avoidance systems, automatic transportation
.
systems (i.e., BART, in San Francisco), and automobile braking and antiskid systems.

Q:

A:

Does technology exist to integrate computer components very closely into human affairs?
Yes. For an example, see the 1974 US automobiles, which will not operate unless seat
belts are fastened.
Are system design and good practice manuals available for such a level of technology, and/or is suitable indoctrination
and education available in our educational
institutions?
Emphatically NO! This fact is frightening
enough to suggest a moratorium on such developments until we understand the tool
better.
Inoperable Robots

Consider the announcement of an experimental device which requires matching a certain procedure before you can start your automobile. The intent, and
certainly an obvious usage, is to preclude drunken
drivers from operating vehicles. But suppose that
you are extremely shaken because your wife has just
been killed, and your child needs to be taken to the
hospital. Could you start the car then?
Or consider the case of online patient-monitoring
reported in Datamation magazine of 1972 October. The
programming was correct but the computer was not 100%
reliable. This, as we know, is taken care of by having a customer engineer to fix it. But nobody remembered to find out whether the customer engineers
would always be available over the weekend, and
speedily. As reported, a patient died because confusion in the human system caused the computer to
remain inoperable.
Space Effort Experience in Overriding Robots

Tremendous Increase of Robots

The hardware developments of about the last three
years leading to microprocessors on chips, portend a
tremendous increase in the third class of application. And this is why we must be on guard as to the
propriety and systems aspects of such applications.
Applied to automobiles, such applications could be
extremely critical. One is reminded of power-steering, a boon when it operates, perhaps, but a definite danger when power fails or is turned off.

Certainly the US space effort has gathered ample
experience in the matter of letting computers decide, when they are capable of it, and of overriding them sensibly when it is shown that they were
programmed incorrectly or without consideration for
all eventualities and malfunctions. We see many
spin-offs from the space effort with respect to
products, but very little in methodology which
could be so very applicable to computer usage.

Based on a presentation to the NordData Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 1973.
14

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

Computers as a Boon
Now, I like computers. I believe that they are
presently more beneficial than harmful to society,
and that this ratio can be increased if we take careful consideration and plan for their best and proper
usage.
If I were fatalistic, I should feel that they have
arrived just in time to save us from our enemies, who
are ourselves. In 25 years as a programmer I have
never faced a day of working with computers without
pleasant anticipation.
I also like a fire in the fireplace, but not arson. Both fire and computers are tools accessible
to all of society in some form, and society uses
such basic tools in many ways, some deemed good and
some bad.
Fire was an early tool, useful for hollowing out
logs to make vessels, to make transformations in
food, and to heat enclosed air. It was also used
to burn vegetation and trees, sometimes accidentally
(which was thought bad) and sometimes deliberately,
to clear for planting (which was thought good).
Side-Effects, Unanticipated
A major difficulty in analyzing the contribution
of a tool is the inability to categorize, in an absolute way, its uses as being good or bad. This is
not philosophical, but only to remind us that we
make these judgments of good and bad in the narrow
context of our mores and morals, which are in turn
conditioned by ou~ accumulated knowledge and analysis of the workings of our world. We have learned
a little more of those workings lately, not because
we sought the knowledge so much as because it has
been made painfully evident to us that there is more
or less coupling between all the elements of our
world.

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I quote from an interview with Dr. Carl Hammer
of Univac, regarding a conversation with V. A. Trapeznikov, acting Co-Chairman of the United States and
Russian Joint Commission on Scientific and Technical Cooperation: "He told me, as he told President
Nixon one day earlier, that 'we all must cease to
make wrong decisions on a large scale because mankind can no longer afford it. Mankind's resources
are highly limited, and we can no longer squander
them' ••• we must develop not only national but international models for improving our decisionmaking
processes. Decisions which at this time are made on
a political or emotional base, neither way will produce optimal results."
So I touch on some bad uses of computers only to
illustrate the problems to overcome by legislation,
education, and professionalism to make computers
serve us better.
Mind-Amplifying Factor

1-

Carl Hammer says "We have already built into our
society a mind-amplifying factor of 2000 to one. Behind every man, woman, and child in this country (the
US), there stands the power of 2000 human beings. The
responsibility of any data processing manager of today, of the computer scientists ••• is so enormous
that even I cannot envision it. It is the greatest
challenge that has ever faced mankind."
Power it is, in elemental form. IBM's recent advertising stresses "think of the computer as energy."
Theoretically, the computer is vast power at the

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

service of people, to be used as the imagination of
the people leads it, subject of course to limiting
legislation.
Knowledge Power
But let us not be lulled by any advertising into
thinking that the energy is just like electricity.
Computer power is work power, but it is also knowledge power, of the kind that has been used throughout history for aggrandisement as well as the good
of the people. In a time when technology stands at
bay, it will be well to consider the dangers of computer misuse in prejudicing the population against
a valuable tool, and of misuse by corrupt or ignorant
officials.
There are no known instances of computers voluntarily stopping normal work to perform illegal acts
without direction by humans. Consider the science
fiction capability of walking through matter; we
have seen it in the cinema, usually used to get into the bank vault or perform some other evil deed.
But in the cinema it was a power accorded only to a
few, being so technically difficult. Computer power
is available widely, and we must not be surprised
that some people should turn it to their own ends
in disregard of the general benefit of society.
Jerry Schneider: Crook, Then Security Consultant
Consider the case of Jerry Schneider. There is
no problem with mentioning his activities. He sent
an abstract of a paper that he wanted to present at
the 1973 National Computer Conference, telling about
how he tapped into a computerized ordering system
and stole something like $1 million of telephone
equipment by having it delivered to a telephone company van bought at auction. The computer program,
not knowing how to bill and get payment, ignored it
as being within loss limits. When turned in by an
employee, Schneider spent two months in jail and was
back in business as a computer security consultant I
There is no question but that computer power may
be abused by individuals. It may be so used by larger entities, such as corporations, to fool or defraud. It may be so used even by governments, however wittingly.
Redressing the Balance
Dr. Henry Bruck of M.I.T. spoke of this at ACM
70, in a talk enti tled "To Redress the Balance."
His thesis was that computers, because of cost and
training investment, were more likely to become the
tools of government and big business than the general public. Countering the argument that minicomputers, microcomputers, and hand calculators are
available to individuals at low cost, he said that
it was a fallacy to assume that this meant that computer power was available to the general public for
this reason. Shovels for a penny are useless unless
one knows how to dig, and has arms. It is the usage
skill that is important.
He thought that modifying education so that imparting basic computer skills (and problem-solving
techniques) would be given as much emphasis as learning one's own language would be unnecessary overspecialization. Nor would the answer be to reduce
usage by government and business, for we have ever
more need for decisionmaking information that is
more likely to be accurate and complete, taking into
account the overall advantage to people. However,
he saw no reason why computer services could not be
provided to the citizenry through puhlic institutions.
15

I agree. There are many opportunities for computer services to be provided by municipalities and/or
private ventures. One can imagine data banks that
could serve as advisories for human action and choices. There is an experiment in Los Angeles where
the computer serves as a general counselor for a
multitude of services. Consumerism could be served
in a great many ways -- product safety and efficiency, comparative shopping, financing aid for major
purchases, reminders for preventive maintenance, etc.
Thus there are many ways to redress the balance
by making computer power really available to everyone in a direct manner and without having to learn
how to program. There is a need, however, for a
certain amount of "computer Ii teracy" in order to
feel comfortable with such usage.
Mystique of Computer Authority

As a tool, the computer has become commonplace
with a rapidity exceeded by no other, even the automobile. This has caused some disallocation and unease, which the practitioners have not been able to
avoid. Most major tools, when introduced, have had
their custodians, and then their guilds or professions that, from gradual experience, added to the
body of law and practice those safeguards for usage
that appeared necessary from gradual occurrences of
misuse.
This did not occur with computers, and perhaps
we did not even use the time that was available to
us, so caught up were we with the mystique and power.
Certainly we did not familiarize people generally
with computers; instead, they were publicized as
"giant brains," and the mystique grew into "authoritativeness."
One of the main problems with authority is that
it can be blamed. Surely you all know many examples,
but I shall add a few to your knowledge.
Perhaps it is a worldwide phenomenon. One calls
the store that has made a mistake in the bill, the
bank that has not returned the cancelled checks, the
association that has blacklisted your credit -- and
the voice replies "I'm sorry, sir, but we have a computer now ••• ".
The Allen Piano Co. Lie

The Allen Piano and Organ Company of Phoenix advertised by radio that its computer had made a mistake in ordering inventory; they were now overstocked
and were therefore holding a sale. I wrote the company a letter, on behalf of the Association for Computing Machinery, offering to fix the computer or
program so it would not make such a mistake anymore,
on condition that "if it developed that a human was
at fault," and not a computer, they would so acknowledge this in their subsequent broadcast advertising.
Datamation magazine followed the story -- it turned
out that the Allen Piano and Organ Company DID NOT
HAVE a computer, nor did they use any computer facilities.
Note the convictions of the advertisers that a
computer would give authority to their spurious claim
of overstocking.

DUNGER, and not D UNGER, and not Dunger (for those
with lower case capability). He received several
replies, all saying that it was unfortunately impossible with their computer equipment. Learning of
this from his letter to Computerworld, I called several of these data processing departments, to find
in each case that the print chain was in fact an IBM
chain that did have the apostrophe on it, but that
they had not bothered to use it! It seems to me that
a man's name is a dear possession, and not one to be
treated cavalierly under cloak of computer authority.
The Bank Lie

I once visited a home where four elderly women
were playing bridge. When they found out that I was
in the computer profession there was a chorus of horror stories. Then one brought out a letter from her
bank, with a handwritten apology from the teller for
the shortcomings of the computer. I was on the spot.
To save face I called the bank vice president to see
what could be done. They didn't have a computer
either!

I.':'

The Authority of the Computer
as an Accomplice

The computer is a convenient means of implicitly
or explicitly covering activities that run from illegal to self-serving, intentional or unintentional.
The notorious Equity Funding scandal will certainly become a classic, even though the exact ways that
it was perpetrated will take some time to discover.
We know, even now, that it was a pyramiding operation, and that computers were used to give authority
and extra layers of protection from discovery. Many
corrective actions could arise from the case, such
as new emphasis on EDP auditing. It appears that
perhaps as many as 200 people were involved in collusion.
The University of Michigan has a research service
that projects the effect of various decisions and
actions upon the GNP (Gross National Product) and
its growth, with respect to the State of Michigan.
The results could easily be given in regular typewritten (or typeset) reports, but they are not! A
computer printout accompanies the report to give it
AUTHORITY. The set of results that I saw seemed
both spurious and misleading, and perhaps others
could have detected this had they been as unawed by
computers as I am.
Perhaps there may come a day when the US augments
its Environmental Protection Agency with a Human Protection Agency. Then, taking the lead from the present requirement to make notification on cigarette
packages that "cigarette smoking is dangerous to
your health," it could order that each computerprinted page be preceded by:
"WARNING -- these answers were produced by a
computer, and could be hazardous to your
health!"
Of course I am being facetious about the overkill
which does not seem to diminish smoking anyway, but
I do recall the following case.
"Sorry General, Three Years of Wrong Answers"

The No·Apostrophe Lie

One Mr. D'Unger, not of the computer community,
\vrote to several companies maintaining mailing lists
containing his name, either for billing or solicitation, asking them to please spell it correctly. Not

16

Univac was attempting to sell the US Army an 1107.
The benchmark process included a compilation and run
of a certain FORTRAN program. The 1107 compiler printed a diagnostic indicating an entry into the middle
of a DO loop. The General in charge indicated that
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

C

this was impossible, as they had been running that
same program for three years, and asked a programrner
to examine the situation. He returned in a short
whi Ie and said "Sorry, General. Three years of
wrong answers."

Of course this particular manifestation of swallowing of data and not giving it back to anyone else
could be largely solved by using labels and data
description on data media, so that the data can be
self-descriptive. Congressman Brooks of the US has
called for a "declaration of independence for data."

The Computer as a Sewage System
Computer Failure

A well-known trui sm of computer usage is "Garbage
in, Garbage Out." But what happens when we put perfectly valid data in? Can we get it out again? Can
someone else do so? If it does come out, is it legible?
We still live in the computer era where 90% or
more of the data depends entirely upon the associated program to be turned into information. The data
description of COBOL is a start to improve this, but
why should the description be appended to the program rather than to the data itself?
Do you need a program to read a book in the library? At ACM 70, Dr. John Richardson of the US
Dept. of Commerce said "Information Conserves Resources Through Better Decisions," but some of the
valuable data that we need to make those better decisions is not, in fact, retrievable, exchangeable,
or digestible. It cannot be turned into information.
Indeed, one of the major findings in the various
studies of data banks is that the sum of many small
data banks is not a large data bank, at least not
yet, contrary to the fears of many. And yet there
are good as well as harmful reasons to consolidate
data. If, for example, the US Congress had two reliable pieces of information -- 1) how much it was
costing to not grow cotton, and 2) how much it was
costing to promote the use of cotton -- the very
juxtapo~ition might give rise to some better decisions. The organizing power of the computer depends
completely upon legibility and interchangeability of
data.
Incompatibility of Data Banks

A classic example is the situation that arose
when the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency)
was formed by consolidation of several diverse groups,
each with its own information systems. When they
tried to consolidate the data as well, surely one
of the main reasons for the coalescence, they found
out that data could not only not be exchanged between various components, but not even between the
several computer systems in the subdivisions of the
agencies! And, of course, the air masses travel
over many states, each state with its own computers
and monitoring systems, and each computer incapable
of making decisions that would optimize for the entire country, much less the world -- if that possibility were permitted.
Illegibility of Computer Data without the Program

Examples of the illegibility of computer data
without the program are countless. Dr. Fred Whipple,
the astronomer, once mentioned that only 1% of his
information from satellite and probe vehicles was
being processed. I corrected him slightly, to say
"data," and he reiterated "information." I asked
if anyone could process the tapes if the program
were destroyed? He admitted that it_would be impossible. "Data" it was.
The Las Vegas city police and
department recently consolidated
poli tan" Force. It will be many
computerized data files can also
be of efficient use.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

county sheriff's
to form a "Metroyears before their
be consolidated to

Another way of not being able to get data out is
to have the computer system fail. Integration of
computer systems into human affairs demands extreme
reliability. We all know this, yet there are many
times when one is tempted by the power of the computer to entrust to it a function that has some
deadlines. I am guilty of this myself. We use a
computer for text processing and publication. The
problem is that we are forced to share a computer
that is used for software experimentation and new
system software validation, or for benchmarking in
various configurations. While the hardware may be
very reliable, newly-devEloped software is, unfortunately, not -- and we have entrusted our total
text to the disk files. When difficulties occur,
no manual methods, however desperate and strenuous,
can be employed to do a makeshift job. It is the
ultimately perfect job or none at all; we are at
the mercy of a system that must be fully operational.
The point of my story is that it is a human failing to be optimistic that the computer will be upl
So one does not plan for back-up, duplicating files
on another system, or batch methods that work even
when timesharing is down. Now we cannot even reprocess the sewage. We have given the computer valid and useful data and cannot get it back until too
late.
Some Actions to be Taken for Human Protection

Society long ago learned to impose minimum restrictions and educational or training requirements
upon classes of workers whose operations affected
the public safety or welfare. These constraints
led to professions, with codes of ethics and a store
of recommended practice often embodied in local law,
such as building codes. Examinations by peers is
a prerequisite to practice -- for doctors, lawyers,
engineers, accountants, ad infinitum. Until now
such restrictions have not been imposed upon the
computer community; one can only suppose that the
professions just mentioned did not materialize so
'abruptly before the social consciousness.
Some public exposure of malfeasances moved the
legislature of the State of California to consider,
in 1971, the certification of computer programmers
as a class. This was given attention by the press
and, together with the fact that the legislature
was in a quandary, it was sufficient for assistance
to be asked of AFIPS (American Federation of Information Processing Societies). AFIPS convened a System Certification Committee in 1972 February.
Certification of Programmers
and Handbooks of Good Practice

The committee arrived very quickly at the conclusion that there seemed to be no authoritative
way to achieve certification. I proposed that a
series of books of good practice should be conceived and constructed through AFIPS. Thi s proj ect is
now underway. The first such book of good practice
is on confidentiality and security, due to the very
strong and justifiable interest in this topic at
the moment, and is about to be field-tested. It is
17

largely in checklist form. As a minor note, the committee has changed its name to "Systems Improvement,"
to emphasize the fact that it does not feel that any
form of certification is feasible yet.
Reliability of Computers

"Reliability for Integration into Human Affairs"
was the title of one of the sessions of the 1973 National Computer Conference in the US. The session
had a certain distinction. The other sessions were,
by design, to reflect a "vertical" or "end use" orientation. Here I deliberately chose, in planning
the program, to take a further step, to see what aspects of computer systems design were common to many
end uses for the specific reason that they were directly integrated into human affairs.
The panel included representatives from air collision avoidance systems, online patient monitoring,
online power plant control, credit systems, ground
transportation, and merchandising. Many of these
applications are of Type 3; power control against
blackout, for example, requires a response faster
than a human can achieve. Air traffic control is
another; in the 1980's there are expected to be 5000
people always in the air above Los Angeles, in 700
craft! The representative gave two major requirements:
- Predictable reliability should be astronomical.
- There should be "bai I-out" capabi li ty for
whenever the system fails unpredictably.

Dick Mills of the First National City Bank says
that the bank has $8000 million per day in its interchange "pipeline," so that even a small leak
drains a lot. It would seem that we are not being
overcautious in insisting upon reliability in such
"people-sensitive" applications.
Protective Measures Against Misuse:
Legal Measures: Safety Standards

There are many examples of laws for involuntary
personal protection. Construction workers must wear
hard hats; cyclists must wear leather and helmets.
These are occupational protections enforced upon the
individual presumably because he represents an investment by society.
The US Government has imposed certain requirements
upon the manufacture of automobiles, i.e., to be constructed so as to withstand collision of X km/h without sustaining more than $Y in damage, or the like.
The Government has stated that requiring such action
is within its right to protect the safety of its
citizens. It seems certain that the computer has
a direct effect upon not only the safety of our
citizens, but also upon other rights. It might
thus be reasonable to demand that software and hardware should also be built to certain standards to
protect these rights.

'."I

We are certainly going to have to build computer
systems with facilities for confidentiality and security. Although there is no law on this, there is
little doubt that US Government users will be demanding these features.

"Fire-Drills"

This second point created much discussion; Many
of the builders of complex computer-controlled systems found that the people that ran such systems
were seldom able to practice fixing them. When
they did fail, they were not properly capable of
coping. It was suggested that holding "fire drills"
for such systems was a basic element of good practice.
Searching for other elements of good practice, it
appeared that none of the panelists or their design
teams knew of any source or reference book to use
for reliability aspects of computer usage, even
though there was much commonality in their applications. There are some specialists in this field,
such as Bob Patrick, but no body of knowledge is
available generally. Patrick gives some examples
of bad design:

This area is covered comprehensively in "Legal
Aspects of Computerized Information Systems," a US
Govt. Report. See the Honeywell Computer Journal,
Vol. 7, No. 1.
Voluntary Measures: Ombudsman

Dr. Harold Sackman, Chairman of the AFIPS Committee on Social Implications of Computers, called recently for a "computer user society of America."
This was to be a computer citizen's group active in
social reliability, for the reason that the computer
community really gets to see the problems first, and
has the responsibility to expose the problems to
those who can treat them. The ACM owes much to the
Scandinavian creation of the ombudsman; its ombudsman program has solved many problems of bad computer usage.
Power to Audit

- One computer installation had back-up tapes
in a fire-proof vault, and "grandfather"
tapes inside a mountain. But there was only
one copy of the "run book" that told the operator how to read the tapes, and that was
in the machine room, and would be lost in a
fire.
- A military installation had high security,
and was very protective of the data. To ensure good readability, the tapes periodically
had the first 20 metres or so clipped. The
problem was that these tape strips were thrown
away, under custody of garbage men without
clearances, and they had not been erased!
$300 Million a Year of Computer Crime
Donn Parker, who chaired the above-titled session,
is an authority on computer-related crime. His estimate is that this now amounts to $300 million a
year, and will reach $2000 million in the 1980's!
18

There is a growing class of auditors versed in
data processing, but we may have to take drastic
measures to aid them. There are many current efforts for better methods for software construction.
One hopes that increased simplicity will lead to
more direct legibility and auditability of computer
programs. Most programs are documented poorly, and
I see only one hope of solution -- the program specifications, narrative documentation, and operating
instructions must be integral! Using a block-structured language is vital to constructing auditable
software. It also enables programmed devices to
detect tampering with the running programs.
Handbooks of Design and Practice

Handbooks of design and practice are required to
be available before computing can truly be a profession. Many computer societies are in various
stages of using codes of practice and certification
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

it"

of practitioners. One hopes that they will not stop
short of general certification but will also adopt
application-oriented certification in joint action
with the professions of those applications.
We will have to equip our systems with performance
measuring and evaluation capabilities. Wastage of
resources has been considered an evil in other fields
before this.

Zipcode as well as any other way? So I asked many
data processing departments the same question. The
answer was that they had not thought about it, and
would just as soon do it that way.
It may be as simple as that.

Clark -

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Continued from 'page 13

Recommendations

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As custodians of the power source we have many
responsibilities. When I planned the ACM 70 Conference)it was as a model for a National Computer
Year, which could possibly be followed by an International Computer Year. A possible list of goals
for such a Year could be:
- To conscIously put computers in service for
international goals; to increase public understanding of computers, their role and potential; and to emphasize the computer as
servant by more humanized use and applications.
- To develop strategies for the best future
use of computer systems (technological, social, educational, political, and legislati ve).
- To conserve, and maximize utility of, those
existing and future intellectual resources
known as data and programs, by finding how
to utilize them on mUltiple equipment and
in multiple applications.
- To aid ~overnment, business, and private
decisionmaking by opening up new and more
complete data for those decisions, and to
facilitate the making of those decisions by
reducing the information volume required
(as opposed to data volume).
- To plan a closed cycle for redistributing
work assignments between people and computers, for re-education prior to change of
assignment, so that people can best fulfill
their potential.
To ensure that public safety and welfare are
considered adequately when computers are integrated directly into human activity.
- To set up new and broad interdisciplinary
paths for exchange of information among
hitherto segregated organizations, and to
foster their maximum involvement on an international scale.
- To plan the most economical and effective
interaction between computing systems and
other systems such as communications.
Interaction Between Computers and Society

It is not too soon for a comprehensive examination
of the interaction between computers and our society.
Two papers from the 1973 National Computer Conference
support this view -- "The Social Implications of the
Use of Computers Across National Boundaries" and "A
New NSF Thrust -- Computer Impact on Society." NSF
is the National Science Foundation of the US.
Easier than We Think?

I believe that it won't be so difficult for computers and society to adjust to each other if we really put our minds to making it happen.

4. Carroll, John B., Editor, "Language, Thought, and
Reali ty: Selected Wri tings of Benj amin Lee Whorf" ,
Technology Press, Mass. Inst. of Technology, Cambridge,
Mass., 1956
5. Carter-Wooby, Amelia R., "Computers in Inner-Ci ty
Classrooms," in "Computers and People," Nov., 1974"
p.25
6. Childe, Gordon, "What Happened In History," Penguin Books, Inc., New York, NY, 1943
7. Dendy, Larry B., Ernst von Glasersfeld, and others, "Communication -- Three-Way: Chimpanzee, Man,
Computer," in "Computers and Automation," July, 1973,
p.7
8. Fromkin, Victoria, and Robert Rodman, "An Introduction to Language", Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
Inc., New York, NY, 1974
9. Lai rd, CharI ton, "The Mi racle of Language", Fawcett Publications, Greenwich, CT, 1967, 255 pp.
10. Lorenz, Konrad Z., "King Solomon's Ring", Thomas
Y. Crowell Co., New York, NY, 1952
11. Miller, George A., "Language and Communication",
McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY, 1951, 298 pp.
12. Mowat, Farley, "Never Cry Wolf", Dell Publi shi ng
Co., New York, NY, 1963
13. Scott, John Paul, "Animal Behavior", Univ. of
Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1958
14. Teitelman, Warren, '''Do What I Mean': The Programmer's Assistant," in "Computers and Automation,"
April, 1972, p.8

U nsettl i n9, Distu rbi n9, C ritica I . . .
Computers and People (formerly Computers and Automation),
believes that the profession of information engineer includes not
only competence in handling information using computers and other
means, but also a broad responsibility, in a professional and engineering sense, for: the reliability and social significance of pertinent input data; the social value and truth of the output results. In the
same way, a bridge engineer takes a professional responsibility for
the reliability and significance of the data he uses, and the safety and
efficiency of the bridge he builds, for human beings to risk their
lives on.
Accordingly, Computers and People publishes from time to time
articles and other information related to socially useful input and
output of data systems in a broad sense. To this end we seek to
publish what is unsettling, disturbing, critical - but productive of
thought and an improved and safer planet in which our children and
later generations may have a future, instead of facing extinction.

In 1970 an Assistant Postmaster General of the
US observed that a third of all first class mail is
machine-addressed, but only 6% arrives on the post
office docks in Zipcode order. He asked why the
computerized address files could not be ordered by
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

The professional information engineer needs to relate his engineering to the most important and most serious problems in the
world today: war, nuclear weapons, pollution, the population explosion, and many more.

19

IBM Versus AT&T: Its Meaning To
The User And The Public

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A. G. W. Biddle
Executive Director
Computer Industry Association
Encino, Calif. 91316

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"Observers now see IBM's entry into satellite communications
as a major threat to the computer industry. "

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Based on an address to the EDP/Telecommunications Conference

of your consideration:

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of the National Retail Merchants Association, November, 1974.

The subject of this article is IBM versus AT&T:
Could this be the heavyweight championship business
fight of the century? If so, what does it mean to
the user and to the general public?
Unnoticed Announcement

After the close of the stock market on July 3,
1974, the Dow Jones wire carried a terse statement
datelined Armonk, New York. International Business
Machines Corporation had just announced it was purchasing controlling interest in CML, an authorized
domestic satellite carrier. The timing of the announcement was significant, for the weekly trade and
business journals had already gone to press and the
business and financial desks of the daily newspapers
were closed down for the long, 4th of July weekend.
It was hoped that the move would go virtually unnoticed and unreported. It largely was.
Initial reactions were mixed. A number of observers felt that AT&T would at last face some major
competition and thus both the computer and the communications industries would benefit. However, John
DeButts, Chairman of AT&T and an outspoken critic of
any competition with the Bell System, said that he
had discussed the IBM move with the chairman of IBM
and foresaw no problems. The president of IBM assured the press that IBM was "not trying to put one
over the left field fence."
Major Threat to the Computer Industry

A few -- unfortunately a very few -- observers
now see IBM's entry into satellite communications
as a major threat to the computer industry, the computer user, the telephone subscriber and, in the end,
as a major threat to our nation. I include myself
among this select, but rapidly growing group of vocal
dissidents. Our ranks now include the Department of
Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, Univac, Fairchild, Western Union, Datran, RCA and others. I
would li ke to take thi s opportuni ty to share my
thoughts and some of my deeply felt concerns with
you.
Qualifications of This Author

First, however, let me submit my qualifications
so that you may decide whether my views are worthy
20

9

b
I:
'Ii

- I have spent 20 years of my life as a
specialist in the development of marketing
and growth strategies for more than 50 major
corporations, including some of our nation's
largest.

C

In the past year, I have testified before
six Congressional committees as to conditions in the computer and communications
industries.
j

- And I am probably one of the few people in
the world that have read and studied the
20,000 pages of internal IBM documents,
studies and management committee minutes
that have come to light as a result of the
numerous antitrust suits against IBM.
- And just so you will have no doubt about my
biases, I am told that I am very high on
the "enemies" li st at Armonk and moving up
very rapidly on AT&T's. I have dared to
speak outl
Now, let me give you one man's opinion as to
what is happening and, perhaps of more importance,
what's in store for you, the user of computers and
communications. First I will summarize and then
come back and discuss each aspect in a little greater detail.
AT&T, Heavyweight Champion

In one corner we have AT&T, the heavyweight champion of the world. It has revenues of $26 billion,
absolute control and ownership of the communications
system, 25 percent net income before taxes, and 14
percent growth. One worker out of every 80 works
for AT&T. AT&T has' failed to be responsive to the
needs and desires of the marketplace -- especially
in the areas of business oriented voice and data
communications. This certainly comes as no surprise
to this audience.
The Federal Communications Commission has, since
the now famous Carter-phone decision in 1968, been
gradually opening up limited, specialized segments
of AT&T's markets to competition -- first interconnect and then specialized terrestrial and satellite
carriers. AT&T has used every means at its disposal
to block the development of competition and maintain
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

,

(,
.~

its total monopoly power over all facets
munications system. It has done this by
interconnect, customer intimidation, and
legal proceedings. At the moment, it is

of the comrefusal to
drawn out
losing.

AT&T, through its teletype subsidiary, has encroached upon IBM's territory with the data speed
40 terminal. It has also started marketing OEM.
at
e

IBM, The Other Heavyweight Champion

y.
Now in the other corner we have International
Business Machines. It has revenues of $12 billion,
25% net income before taxes, 15% yearly growth, and
$4 billion in cash. During most of the 1960s, IBM
fell behind the computer industry in technology, especially in the areas of peripheral products, terminals, minicomputers and solid state devices.

s
r-

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r

t.
e
/-

'.....

In 1970, IBM lashed out at the independent peripheral industry -- the Telex's and Memorex's -- for
it feared that the independents might, in time, become viable across-the-board competitors. And in
the meantime, strategies were being put in place at
IBM to recapture its accustomed 7fJ'/o share of EVERY
sector of the computer marketplace.
IBM's Overall Strategy

The elements of that overall strategy are now apparent. They include:
1-

- F.S. (Future System): The fourth generation
of computers will employ up to four parallel
processors, mass storage and, in all probability, will be field expansible. A significant amount of maintenance will be performed
by the user.
System Q: A wholly new software system
utilizing both conventional software as we
know it and firmware. The system may be
designed so that resource usage can be metered, with customers charged accordingly.
- Custom Terminals: A family of unique, application-oriented terminals using extensive
micro coding, new IBM de facto standard protocols and mid-life enhancements.
- Data Security: In order to solve the dataprivacy, security problem, automatic encryption will probably be an integral part of
each element of the system. IBM is spending
$40 million over 5 years to study this problem; only the initial results will be in the
public domain. The design of the locks to
access will obviously be proprietary -- no
interconnect will be possible.
Satelli te Service: IBM -- preferably in
collaboration with Comsat, but no doubt
alone, if necessary -- expects to have a
domestic satellite system operational within
three or four years. Geared to government
and business customers, it will be an integrated digital system with high speed data,
voice and image capabilities. Unlike today's
systems, it will not depend upon large ground
stations connected to the user through AT&T
local loops. Rather. the system, operating
in the "X" band, will utilize a "multitude
of customer dedicated antenna and only a few
general-use ground stations." In essence,
each customer wi 11 have an antenna on hi s
roof.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

- Carnation: To tie it all together, IBM will
probably soon start marketing its "3750"
electronic switching system in the U.S. A
sophisticated PABX, the 3750 has been optimized for data switching but also has all of
the features required for an integrated communication system, including "direct dialing,
tie lines, data access, signalling, 60-cycle
power, call directors, satellite connection
and automatic overflow routing." Initially
targeted at the larger user, where IBM has
more than 65% of the installed base of computers, Carnation is expected to contribute
$5 billion in revenues and over $1 billion
in profit over the first five years of the
program.
- Bundled Service: IBM's strategy for the
computer/communications world of the 1980s
envisions complete end-to-end control of the
total business voice and data communications
network. This total system will include a
telephone instrument on your desk, an IBM
PBX, IBM terminals, IBM CPUs, IBM mass storage devices and IBM word processors -- all
tied together by IBM satellite. There will
be relatively few "foreign or competitive
devices" in the system. IBM will not disclose communication protocols nor electrical,
mechanical and logical interfaces until well
after the market is locked up. In addition,
scrambling and encryption techniques will
be utilized as an umbrella over the entire
end-to-end system. After all, everyone knows
that the only secure system is a sole-source
system, right?
- Bundled Pricing: The opportunities to offer
full end-to-end service allows IBM to bundle
prices once more. By submitting a proposal
to you that "solves your problem by providing a solution -- not boxes," IBM -- can as
it has many times in the past -- freeze out
any significant competition that might develop.
Loss of Control of Peripherals

I noted earlier that IBM had lost its control of
the peripheral, minicomputer and terminal markets.
I think the foregoing points make it clear that they
are totally committed to regaining that control.
It's a beautiful strategy. I'm sure there are
elements of it I haven't touched on, for the Telex
documents are now two years old.
However, as you read the more than 4,000 pages
of mihutes of the top management committee meetings
of Messrs. Watson, Learson, Carey and Opel, one
thing becomes very clear. They sincerely and firmly believe that the computer industry and all of its
extensions belong to IBM. Trespassing is forbidden.
They were disbelieving and shocked that CDC would
dare to offer a super computer, better than anything
IBM had to offer, or could ever build. They
found it i"nconcei vable that customers flocked to
Telex and Memorex tape and disk drives, or that
Sanders was offering superior terminals. And the
idea that independent software houses could increase
the efficiency of an IBM system by 3fJ'/o or more was
pure heresy.
Dealing with Upstarts

Throughout the four-year period 1960-1972, they
wrestled with the problem of how to denl with these
21

upstarts. An overkill psychology gradually set in:
they started searching for techniques that would make
it impossible for others to impact IBM's growth and
profits. The orders went out: stop interconnection
of non-IBM equipment; prevent software enhancement,
and midlife kickers; change standards; lower prices
where competition is faced, raise them where it is
not; use object code and micro codes wherever possible; scare the customer; do whatever it takes -but take it all.
As you know, they almost succeeded in their attempts to put Telex and Memorex out of business.
Even if they wind up paying Telex $256 million in
antitrust damages, IBM's internal calculations show
it to have been a profitable venture. They were
losing a whopping 6% to 8% of their market overall;
they bought time to implement their other strategies.

both the national and international levels. Like
Ma Bell, its monopoly control of the market depends
on making interconnection with the system impossible
or, at the very least, extremely difficult and costly.
Lock-Out Techniques

AT&T has retained its absolute monopoly power
over the communications market for more than ninety
years through four relatively simple lock out techniques:

p
a

f
u

a
a

n
p

- Starting with a patent monopoly of Mr. Bell's
invention, AT&T was able to monopolize the
local exchange market. By challenging every
other patent in the courts, it effectively
delayed the development of competitive instruments for 15 years;

t

By interconnecting their companies with Long
Lines and then refusing to interconnect nonBell independent companies, it killed off
competition;

1
f

s

s
s

"No-No" to Banks and Wall Street

Perhaps of even more importance, IBM made it
quite clear to Wall Street and the banks that investment in a company that dares to compete with IBM
on any terms but IBM's is a no-no.
The long range impact of this is just now beginning to show. The mere announcement of IBM's entry
into the point-of-sale market forced Pitney Bowes'
withdrawal, and I suspect others are soon to follow.
The mere announcement of IBM's satellite move has
caused the financial community to re-evaluate whether
additional capital will be made available to the other
terrestrial and satellite carriers. Several will
probably have to sellout to the giants if they are
to survive.
In 500 IBM Top Meetings, Discussion of Responsibility
to User: Just 3 Times

Before I leave this subject, I would like to
make another observation about the deliberations
of IBM's top management, as reflected in the Telex
documents. During the course of over 500 meetings,
each ranging from one to three days over a four-year
period, IBM's top management discussed you, the user,
and their responsibility to you only three timesl
Many of you in this audience -- particularly the
IBM employees present and the loyal IBM customers -are undoubtedly thinking "What right has he got to
knock IBM? They're a great company and they've done
a great job." To you I say, I agree. IBM is probably one of the best managed, most aggressive companies in the world today. It has made many valuable contributions to the field of data processing
and to our industry.

- By controlling all system architecture and
by producing all of the equipment used in
the system, it was able to prevent the development of industry standard interfaces and
thus block interconnection;
- And lastly, by manipulating the weak and unsophisticated FCC, it was able to cast its
anti-competitive practices into bronze in
the tariffs that "regulate" the industry.
Monopoly Techniques

I think if we look at these four strategies in
the context of IBM, we will quickly see some interesting parallels in their monopoly tactics:
- IBM started in the 1920s with a patent monopoly on punched card equipment, and it
soon capturea 90% of the market. The rest
it shared with Remington Rand.
- As the fledgling computer industry developed,
devices were needed for the input and output
of data. What would be more logical than
the punch card since it already contained
much of the user's data?
- Remington Rand, however, under pressure from
IBM, refused to sell peripheral equipment to
the fledgling computer industry; and IBM
would only sell at its full retail price and
then only after its own customer's needs had
been met.

Innovations: By Other Suppliers, Not IBM

It has not, as it otherwise would like you to believe, been the innovator in this industry. Almost
every major advance in the state of the art has first
been developed and brought to market by others. IBM's
world renowned laboratories may have already invented
the products you will be using in 1990 -- but they
are of no use to you. They will not be made available until IBM has first extracted every possible
cent of rental income and profit from the equipment
it rents you today.
Interconnection Strategy: As Difficult As Possible

Instead of taking a leadership role in the development of standards that would permit healthy
competition to develop, IBM blocks and delays at
22

- Needless to say, IBM soon had more than 80%
of the installed base of CPU's under its absolute control.
- By maintaining a separate and distinct software approach from that of everyone else in
the industry, IBM was able to control the
upward migration of its user base. By controlling all system architecture -- hardware
and software -- and by producing all of the
equipment used in the system, it was able
to prevent the development of industry standard interfaces and thus block interconnection.
- And lastly, by smothering the customer with
tender love and affection -- lots of "free"
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

software and services -- and by keeping the
DP manager out of trouble with his boss, the
user remained largely unsophisticated and passive.
And, the pied piper led us down the road to Utopia.
Central Nervous System of the U.S. Economy:
In the Hands of One Company

We've been good little mice. IBM's revenues have
grown 15% per year, compounded, to $12 billion. More
than 70% of the installed base is still IBM. And no
competitior has been able to capture more than 5% of
the market except by picking up the lease base of a
fallen comrade.
We have, individually and collectively, placed
the central nervous system of our total economy in
the hands of one company. If IBM's field service organization were called in for a two-week refresher
or were unionized and struck, America would grind to
a total stop. No bank, airline, trucking company;
manufacturer, stock exchange or telephone company
would be able to function -- because as each day
goes by, each one becomes more interconnected with
the other and with the seven IBM systems out of every
10 systems in use.
oat

When you place this fact in context with IBM satellites, IBM PABX's, IBM point of sale, IBM electronic funds transfer, and IBM networks -- the implications are frightening indeed.
Again, the IBM apologi sts wi 11 say, "That's the
American system; IBM climbed to the top of the heap,
and more power to them."

g

Competitors: Half ,Starved for Capital

I say in response, IBM started at the top of the
heap in the 1920s, and since then it has used its
market power and control to keep its competitors
half starved for capital and its customers too blinded by IBM's power and IBM's image to find their way
out of their cages.
d

It is said that ours is a very competitive industry. I ask you, how competitive is a race between
Secretariat, five mules and 60 lame ducks? It's not
even fun to watch.

e

And that leads me to my last and final point:
9

e
0%

v-

But Competition is Healthy

Our system is based on the concept that the forces
of competition will assure the fullest employment of
our resources for the good of the many. Those who
succeed in winning the game are rewarded with profits,
which in turn they can plough back into the business
for the production of more beneficial goods. Or so
the theory goes.
What happens when the forces of competition no
longer work? What happens when the King of the Mountain can -- through sheer muscle, sophisticated and
subtle anti-competitive practices (many hidden under
the guise of technology), political clout, and monopoly market control -- block the efforts of even the
strongest to climb the hill? What happens when the
RCA's, General Electrics, Bendix's, Honeywells, Littons, Philco Fords, Univacs and Singers finally give
up trying? What happens when the Carters, MCI's, Datrans, Telecoms, Storage Technologies and Stromberg
Carlsons of the future don't even get to try, because Wall Street and the bankers have learned you
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

can't beat IBM or Ma Bell?
Monopoly Means Higher Costs

Let me suggest what I think will happen. You
will have one source of supply for residential phone
service -- AT&T -- and your costs will skyrocket.
You will have one source of supply for worldwide
business information systems -- voice, data, data
banks and word processing, and all -- IBM, and you
will pay dearly. And your customer will pay dearly.
You will wish you had the problems that you have
today -- the problems of evaluating rapidly changing
competitive offerings in communications, terminals
and minicomputers. Regretfully many of you will
leave the pioneering to "the other guy." History
will probably repeat itself -- you'll tryout what
data processing can do for you with an entry level
System 3. After it's too late, you will find that
it just won't interface with that better, less expensive terminal being offered by competitor A, or
that you can't process the combined results of your
suburban stores without adding more memory -- IBM
memory of course. And just as the 402 User became
the 1401 User and in turn became the 360-50 User and
the 370-158 User, you will find that you are in a
cage. The cost of conversion to get out will be
prohibitive, and your only choice will be to follow
(and pay) the piper.
In all fairness, much of what I have just said is
equally true if you are a beginning user of anyone's
mainframe. The Honeywell's, Univac's, and NCR's
would love to offer you standard interfaces -- they
know they can successfully compete on price and performance. But if standards were adopted, they fear
IBM would take away what little of the market they
have. And IBM fears that the adoption of open interface standards would"erode their market control
and lease base." And you, ladies and gentlemen, are
the victims.
Worse yet, you get it coming and going; for your
store has to pass the cost of the monopolists' profits on to the consumer -- and that's you again.
Is there any wonder as to why your paycheck buys
less each day?
Growing Resistance by Users to Higher Costs

The National Retail Merchants Association has
made a major contribution in the growing resistance
to the misuse of AT&T's monopoly power. Ma Bell is
in trouble. People finally have realized that the
only so-called "natural monopoly" is the wire, cable
and switching equipment in the local service area.
The_customer should be able to choose and install
any properly certified terminal he wants on the end
of that pair of wires. The local operating companies should be able to procure Long Lines service
from anyone or all of the terrestrial and satellite
carriers at the lowest possible cost. The operating
companies should be free to purchase the equipment
they use in open and competitive markets. In short,
the telephone monopoly should be broken.
But IBM is going to bail them out. After all,
how could a poor little old restructured Ma Bell compete with a giant monopoly like IBM? Perhaps of
greater significance, IBM will get the MCIs, Datrans, Western Unions and other competitors out of
Ma Bell's hair, so that just the two of them can
then compete like proper gentlemen -- at their accustomed 25% pre-tax net and controlled 14% per year
rate of growth.

23

Time to Stand and Fight Monopolies

We think the time has come to stand and fight on
both fronts -- computers and communications. It's
time you, the user, told your suppliers to grow up
and put their childish games aside. It's time you
told the FCC, Congress, AT&T and IBM that all interfaces, codes and protocols be fully disclosed -both hardware and software -- and that they must be
disclosed early enough to allow you to choose between
the compatible and competitive offerings of at least
three vendors, or you won't play.
Separate Pricing, a Key

You should insist that all elements of a product
or service offering be separately priced.
It's interesting how they all proclaim that mixed
systems can't be done, yet they interface overnight
when NASA or some other significant purchaser mandates itl
The users and the public should ask the FCC and
the Congress to mandate that all equipment purchased
for use in the Nation's communications system -- be
it local service, terrestrial or satellite -- be procured on an open competitive bid basis. Furthermore,
there should be no joint or bundled marketing efforts
between CML, IBM, the AT&T operating companies or
Western Electric. All transactions should be at
arms length. No strategies intended to lock you,
the user, into a sole source system should be tolerated. Nor should anti-competitive and exclusionary tactics be permitted.
Do these things and someday you shall be free -free to choose what's best for you and your company,
not just what's best for AT&T's and IBM's profit and
loss statements.
Retailing as an Example of
Strong Competitive Business

Perhaps I've hit too hard. If so forgive me -but the National Retail Manufacturers Association
is an audience that represents one of the few remaInIng examples of the free enterprise system at
work in America today.
These firms, whether in furniture, clothing, or
general merchandise, have not ducked under the protective umbrella of government regulation. They
have not felt the palsied hand of bureaucratic regulation on their shoulder as have our railroads, our
airlines, our trucking industry and our public utilities. They have not adopted accounting principles
that guarantee bankruptcy if there is the slightest
change in the status quo.
In the greatest traditions of the American free
enterprise system, the retail business is a business in which anyone who chooses may participate:
There are no major barriers to entry.
Retailers are free to succeed -- or to fail -on their own merits. If they are sensitive to the
needs and desires of the consumer; if they give him
or her what they perceive to be a fair value; if they
make doing business with them a pleasant experience
-- they will grow and prosper and receive the rewards of a grateful society.
In retailing, the consumer, in his ultimate wisdom, is the final decision maker. If the retailer
fails to satisfy his or her needs, he will fail.

24

There are not likely to be any guaranteed government
loans to bail him out; there is no government agency
to prohibit a more astute competitor from opening up
across the street. They do not have monopoly control over all sources of supply of the products they
sell, nor can they dictate style, fashion or taste
all by themselves.
In fact, each day a retailer continues to prove
the fundamental economic principles that we all
learned in high school and college -- lower prices
tend to increase volume and total profits. It would
seem that our automobile manufacturers and other
near monopolies have their own private set of economic principles. When business is good, they raise
the prices -- when business is bad, they raise prices again. Why does the consumer put up with it?
Because there is no place else to go -- there is no
meaningful competition in the concentrated industries.
Crisis

The situation is rapidly approaching crISIS proportions. The Arabs are very conservative investors -- they will put their money in land and in
monopolies. After all, who knows better the power
of a Cartel? So they will largely invest in the
IBMs, AT&Ts, General Motors and other corporations
dominant in their respective industries. The Arabs
fully recognize that the economic importance of each
of those companies to our nation and their large
number of employees forces the politicians to see
that the Government stands behind them as the employer and banker of last resort. Money invested
in these companies is as good or better than money
invested in Government bonds.
Our institutional investors have also learned
this lesson and that's why we have a single tier
market.
And their prophecy becomes self-fulfilling because everyone below the Fortune Top Fifty dies for
lack of capital, and the wisdom underlying the "prudent investment" principle is born out. 11 handful
of corporate giants will then control the assets of
our nation. Heading the list will be our friends
AT&T and IBM, the bluest of the Blue Chips.
Of course, the unions will have to increase their
power in order to maintain equality, and Government
will have to grow to maintain balance.
When the concentration of power is complete,
where do you and I -- the disenfranchised voters,
the taxpayers and consumers of our nation -- stand?

o

Please think about it.

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COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

If
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Ir1-

lal

The Teaching of Computer Science:
Master of Science Degree
J. N. Snyder
Head of Department
Department of Computer Science
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, III. 61801
"Every educated person should have some understanding
of the principles on which computers operate."

d

CS/SE ED 357, ComputerAssisted Instruction .............. 1 unit

Here is a description of a new educational program
being offered by this department. We believe your
readers may be interested.

CS/~~TH

367, Computer Application
to Problems in Mathematics ........ 1 unit

Purpose

t

Computers are playing an increasingly pervasive
role in our society. Therefore every educated person should have some understanding of the principles
on which they operate; and many will need varying
degrees of skill in their use.

2)

ED PSYCH 311 and 312

Elective Sequence (2 units):
These elective courses are chosen with
the help of the student's adviser as a
sequence for specialization in some area
related to computer science, dependent on
the student's background and interests.

The objective of this new curriculum is to prepare competent and well-qualified teachers of computer science for undergraduate colleges, junior
colleges, vocational-technical colleges, and high
schools.

An applicant will be favorably considered for
admission if he: holds a baccalaureate or higher
degree equivalent to that granted by the University
of Illinois, has a grade-point average of at least
4.0 (on a scale with maximum 5.0) for the last sixty
hours of undergraduate work, and has had at least
one course in computer programming. Applicants with
an ~verage below 4.0 but above 3.75 will be considered on an individual basis.

1/2 unit

Educational Policy Studies
(Two courses selected from
the group 300-307) ................ 1 unit

Many jobs will bring non-computer specialists
into positions where they should use computers.
Thus, to not expose today's students to computers
means giving them poor preparation for the world
in which they will have to live.

Admission Requirements

Education (2 units):

Teaching Project

In addition to the course requirement, each
student under the supervision of his faculty adviser is also required to complete a teaching
project in computer science. This requirement
will normally be fulfilled in connection with
'specified course work in the curriculum, the electives or individual study courses, or by virtue of
the student's current or past employment.
Some alternatives (all of which yield either
course credit or remuneration for the student)
are:

The Curriculum

The eight units of graduate credit required for
the degree are listed below. A unit is approximately
equal to four semester hours. If a student enters
the program with only one course in computer programming, he may have to take one or two undergraduate courses, also.
1)

Computer Science (4 units):
CS 321, Information Structures
or CS 323, Machine Language and
System Programming 11 ......•••.... I unit
CS 333, Computer System
Organization ..................... .

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

1.

Service as a teaching assistant.

2.

Past or present service as a teacher in a
public, secondary, or community school.

3.

The practice being required for state
certification.

4.

Preparation of PLATO material either in an
individual study course or as part of a
CS/SE ED 357 project.

5.

Tutoring and/or grading under special
circumstances.

unit

25

THE 20th ANNUAL EDITION
OF THE

Computer Science Courses

CS 321 -- Information Structures:
Lists, trees, and graphs; applications to
string processing and pattern matching;
storage allocation, and collection of unused
memory space. Prerequisite: CS 201.
3 hours or 1 unit.
CS 323 -- Systems Programming:
The organization and structure of operating
systems for various modes of computer use from
simple batch systems to time-sharing/multiprocessing systems is discussed. Prerequisite:
CS 201. 3 hours or 1 unit.

COMPUTER DIRECTORY AND
BUYERS' GUIDE, 1974
. .. IS PUBLISHED - A SPECIAL 13th EDITION
of
COMPUTERS AND PEOPLE
The COMPUTER DIRECTORY AND BUYERS' GOlDE is:
•

an annual comprehensive directory of the firms which
offer products and services to the computing and data
processing industry .

•

a basic buyers' guide to the products and services available for designing, building, and using computing and
data processing systems.

CS 333 -- Computer System Organization:
Computer system analysis and design; organizational dependence on computations to be
performed; and speed and cost of parts and
of overall machines. Prerequisite: CS 201.
3 hours or 1 unit.

CONTENTS (over 160 pages)
CS/SE ED 357 -- Computer Applications to
Problems in Mathematics:

Roster of Organizations in Computers and Data Processing
Buyers' Guide to Products and Services in Computers and
Data Processi ng
Special Geographic Roster of Organizations in Computers
and Data Processing
Characteristics of Digita I Computers (14,000 entries for
380 computers made by 80 manufacturers)
Survey of Programming Languages in Business
A Short Guide to Programming Languages
Over 2600 Applications of Computers and Data Processing
Roster of College and University Computer Facilities
Roster of Computer Associations
Roster of Computer Users Groups
World Computer Census
Some Basic Arithmetical Tables
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)

This course discusses many problems which can
be formulated mathematically and lend themselves to computer solution. Problems are
chosen from the following major areas: applied
statistics, in particular Monte Carlo techniques and simulation; combinatorics; symbolic
algebra; game playing and decision problems.
Prerequisite: Junior standing and CS 121 or
other Computer Science 100-level programming
course; or the consent of the instructor.
3 hours or 1 unit.
Financial Assistance

Many graduate students in computer science
receive some financial assistance while attending
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Many of these students are employed part-time as
teaching or research assistants. To encourage
students to make satisfactory progress in their
courses of study, assistantships ordinarily are
limited to one-half time.

PRICE:
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-~

NIXON, FORD, AND THE POLITICAL
ASSASSINATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
Richard E. Sprague
Hartsdale, N. Y.

"Any reasonable hypothesis about what is really going on
based on the evidence at hand, has not been even remotely
suggested by either Congress or the media."

The Pardon of Nixon

Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon on September 8, 1974. Thus the latest act in a drama that
began in 1960, unfolded. Many skeptical U.S. citizens nodded their heads knowingly and assumed Tricky
Dick had made his "deal" with Ford, when he nominated
him for Vice President. Evans and Novak\l/ assumed
that Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked Ford into the pardon on grounds of poor Nixon health and family considerations. The Ford explanations of fears for
Nixon's health didn't seem to convince very many
news media people who saw a seemingly robust expresident in San Clemente.\2/
The pardon seemed to most Americans and news editors, a gross error in judgment and a total miscarriage of justice. Once again, the United States as
a whole was fooled. This time, both Nixon and Ford
managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the public
and to narrowly escape revealing what can be called
"the entire rotten crust at the top of American power."
Any reasonable hypothesis about what is REALLY
going on, based on the evidence at hand, has not
been even remotely suggested by either Congress or
the media. But here is a hypothesis which can be·
argued to be reasonable.
A Reasonable Hypothesis

A reasonable hypothesis about the situation leading up to the pardon, must begin with the relationship through the years between Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon; and it must go back to 1960, the year Mr.
Nixon planned the overthrow of Castro's Cuba.

plans for an invasion.\S/ When he narrowly lost to
Kennedy, it created a deep wound and he apparently
spent much of the next three years planning what
might be called revenge.
During the 1960 to 1963 period Nixon became well
acquainted with a number of violent-tempered or coldhearted Cubans and Americans, both inside the CIA
and outside. They agreed with him that casting out
Castro was highly desirable. One of these men was
E. Howard Hunt.\6/ Another was Bernard Barker.\7/
A third was Carlos Prio Soccarros.\8/
The Cabal

In a perhaps separate effort of their own, these
Nixon cronies and financial partners became involved
with the Cabal that murdered John Kennedy.\9/ Whether Nixon was directly involved in the Cabal's planning for the assassination is still open to some
question, although one researcher believes that he
was. \10/ There certainly is substantial evidence
that Nixon was out to sink Kennedy and Johnson, at
least politically, and aimed to do so in Dallas immediately before Kennedy was killed. (See the section below on evidence)\ll/
At any rate, whether Nixon was or was not directly involved in planning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy does not have to be settled
here, because Nixon WAS directly involved in covering up the truth about who did the deed. Recently
revealed evidence from the Nixon-Haldeman tapes indicates that Nixon knew the truth about the assassination when he suggested Gerald Ford for the Warren
Commission.\12/
Ford and Nixon

In 1960, 'Nixon was the White House action officer
on the planning for what turned out later to be the
Bay of Pigs invasion of CUba.\3/
The Overt.hrow of Castro

Prior to that time Nixon had accumulated plenty
of reasons to want Castro overthrown. The antiCommunist attitude was the reason on the surface.
Underneath were Nixon's connections with the Mafia,
and his friendships and financial holdings that were
greatly damaged when Castro closed all the Casinos
run by the mob in Havana.\4/ When Nixon and Kennedy
debated about Cuba in the 1960 campaign, Nixon purposefully lied to the American people about U.S.
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

The hypothesis then continues with the close personal friendship of Ford and Nixon in their days
together in the Congress, when both were strong,
ultra-conservative, "red white and blue," antiCommunist, "religious" members who thought and
talked alike.
When Nixon realized that John Kennedy had been
killed almost under his nose on November 22, 1963,
in Dallas, Texas, by some of his Bay of Pigs friends,
he decided to do everything in his power to cover it
up and to bide his time until his powerful military
and intelligence friends could get him placed in the
White House. It took one more murder by the Cabal
27

(Robert Kennedy) to get him there, and still another
attempted murder to keep him there (George Wallace).
Control Over Investigation of Assassinations

Control over the investigations of these murders
was essential for Nixon and the Cabal. In order to
guide a presidential commission away from the truth,
the closed small circle of people who knew what had
happened to John Kennedy had to be enlarged. Allan
Dulles was no problem. He knew the cause was an
intelligence-military Cabal from the day it happened,
forward.
Earl Warren was a tougher nut. He had to be fooled and later on, talked into keeping silent "for the
good of the country."
Gerald Ford's Book

To have a ring leader inside the Warren Commission
was critical. It had to be someone Nixon could really trust. Someone who had at least the appearance
of being honest and trustworthy to the people. Nixon
called on his old pal, Gerry Ford. He convinced LBJ
that Ford should be on the Commission.\13/
Then, the hypothesis continues, that Nixon told
Ford at some point prior to January 1964 who killed
JFK and why, and he convinced Ford that every effort
should be made to make sure Oswald was found to be
the lone assassin. Ford did an excellent job. He
not only steered the Commission away from the facts
\14/ whenever a key witness was interviewed or an
embarrassing situation developed, he also nailed
Oswald's coffin shut personally, by publishing his
own book on Oswald\lS/: "Lee Harvey Oswald -- Portrait of The Assassin". This, coming from the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, served to
firmly plant in the minds of Americans the idea that
there was no conspiracy, that Oswald was THE lone
assassin, and that the Warren Commission had done a
good job.
Access to Power

From the day Ford's book was published, Nixon and
Ford became totally beholden to each other. They
also both became totally beholden to the members of
the Cabal who were at or near the top of it or who
were part of the small knowledgeable circle.
Other members of what will henceforth be called
the inner circle, included J. Edgar Hoover, while
he was alive, and Richard Helms.
Under this hypothesis, no one could be permitted
to come into power in the White House, or the CIA or
the Justice Department or the FBI, unless they were
part of the inner circle and willing to keep quiet
and help suppress the truth about the JFK assassination.
This inner circle widened, of necessity, when
Robert Kennedy was killed, and Nixon became President. Both the people involved in killing Robert
Kennedy, and Nixon's top aids had to be told the
truth. This included Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Kissinger,
and possibly others in the White House, and Mitchell.
Mitchell also had the job of controlling Hoover's
successors in continuing the cover ups. Mitchell
was instrumental in stopping .Jim Garrison's investigation of Clay Shaw and the rest of the Cabal and in
totally discrediting Garrison.\16/ He was aided of
course, by Richard Helms and others in the inner circle by thorough CIA support in the Clay Shaw trial
cover-up efforts.\J7/
28

Assassination Attempt Upon George Wallace

In 1972, the White House plumber section of the
assassination Cabal decided, perhaps without Nixon's
knowledge, perhaps with his approval, to assassinate
George Wallace.
In this way, Nixon would receive ALL of the conservative vote. Again, the inner circle grew, and
the debts grew. E. Howard Hunt and Charles Colson,
along with Tony Ulazawicz, Donald Segretti and others, were in a position to make demands in exchange
for their silence. The Hunt $1 million blackmail
threat to reveal "seedy things" or "hanky panky,"
was never really explainable because he might talk
about the Watergate or Ellsberg break-ins. Three
assassinations, (JFK, RFK, Wallace) on the other
hand would certainly be worth a cool million to
keep one's silence. Again, the Haldeman-Nixon June
23, 1972, tapes are revealing.\18/ (See later section on evidence)
The Watergate Crisis

Now arrives the Watergate crisis. Nixon is trapped by his own tapes. The hypothesis continues that
discussions with Haldeman, Mitchell and others mention the Kennedy assassination Cabal and the Wallace
murder attempt. The Cabal and the inner circle are
suddenly threatened as a group. The tapes can't all
be destroyed because too many Secret Service people
know about them. Haldeman and Nixon manage to erase
one 18-1/2 minute section which is the most revealing about the assassinations, but the rest are still
around. And who can remember exactly when telephone
or Oval Office conversations may have mentioned the
truth about the three murders?
Succession to Nixon

Nixon, sensing again the need for a successor who
will keep quiet, calls on Gerry Ford when Agnew is
forced out. The two of them, bound inextricably together by their mutual cover-up of the assassinations, work out a deal. Nixon nominated Ford as
Vice President. The Senate, completely bamboozled
by Nixon and Ford, did not ask Ford any important
questions about the assassination's nor his performance on the Warren Commission. They did ask Ford
about his book and he committed perjury two times
befor~ the Senate.
Nixon and Ford agreed that Ford will keep quiet
if Nixon keeps quiet, and that if necessary, Ford
will succeed Nixon if he is forced to resign, or be
impeached, with an agreement for a pardon afterward.
But, the most critical part of the arrangement is
that those tapes revealing the truth about the assassinations be kept out of circulation. The two
men must keep theiT cover-up going. Each is now
fully culpable. When the Supreme Court ruled that
the tapes must be turned over, it was then time to
implement their agreed-upon strategy.
In addition, Jaworski, Colson, Mitchell, Kissinger, Haldeman, Ehrlichman., the Warren Commission,
Hunt, Helms, Shaw and anyone else in the inner circle has to be bought off, pardoned, protected, or
killed, to keep their silence.
Jaworski's Resignation

Leon Jaworski resigned and people ask why. The
real answer again lies buried in the fact that Jaworski knows what has been going on. One way he
knows is through the assassination conspiracy and
cover-up information passed on to him by the Ervin
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

Committee and Cox. A second way is through his own
involvement in 1964 in the JFK cover-up. In any case
he will have to be taken care of.
d

nt

r

Jaworski could be a problem, even though he helped with the JFK cover-up from the beginning. 19/ Hunt
has already been taken care of by getting him out of
jail, buying him a large estate in Florida, and paying him a lot of money.\20/ Helms can be counted on.
Kissinger may have been a problem, but he agreed finally. His wiretaps were likely ordered to find out
who knew about the assassinations. Hoover is dead.
Clay Shaw was murdered.\21/ Out of the Warren Commission, Warren is dead. Boggs was killed. Dulles
is dead. LBJ is dead. Richard Russell is dead. John
Sherman Cooper was bought off by giving him an important ambassadorship. John J. McCloy is too old to
worry about, and of course Ford is O.K.
That leaves Colson, Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman, plus some other small fry. The Nixon-Ford
strategy as planned with these men, must have involved pardons for all of them in exchange for their
silence, especially Haldeman and Mitchell because
they not only knew what happened to JFK, but took
overt actions to cover-up. (Haldeman erased the
18-1/2 minutes of tape and Mitchell nailed Jim Garrison.) The pardons may have to wait until the
trial is over, but they are agreed to in advance.
New Members of the Inner Circle

Newer members of the inner circle may cause some
problems. They all have to know the truth by now.
Rockefeller and Alex Haig must know and have agreed
to silence. William Colby, William Saxbe, and Clarence Kelly know because of their access to the records; so they must have agreed to cover-up continuance.
Of extreme importance is Saxbe's and Kelly's control of the new trial and hearing coming up for Sirhan B. Sirhan and possibly an investigation of Arthur
Bremer. Also Ford and his cronies in the House must
knock out any efforts by Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas
to start a new House Committee investigation of the
JFK assassination. Haig seems to have been bought
off by promising him a top NATO post in exchange for
his silence.
In this hypothesis, Gerald Ford is stuck. He must
remain committed to the Cabal and to Nixon. Whatever assassination the Cabal may undertake in 1976,
he must close his eyes to it, and continue covering
up.
Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, and Eugene McCarthy
would have had very little chance of surviving the
situation if they showed election promise in 1976.
Also the tapes must be controlled and edited at
all costs. Nixon no doubt required help in listening
to the tapes after Haldeman left and sorting out those
in which assassinations and cover-ups were discussed.
General Haig was logically the man he selected to do
this dirty work. It is almost certain that no tapes
could be turned over to Judge Sirica or to Jaworski
with any assassination references left on them. One
of the tapes demanded by Jaworski had such references. This is the recording made on June 23, 1972, in
which Nixon and Haldeman are discussing Watergate,
just six days after the break in.
The Nixon transcript of that tape turned over to
Judge Sirica upon orders of the Supreme Court, shows
many sections labelled unintelligible. It is a near
certainty from three parts of the discussion that

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

day, that the critical sections were edited out by
Nixon and General Haig prior to turning them over
to Sirica and prior to making a transcript. Judge
Sirica is the only person in the chain of possession
of that tape who could be counted on to make a scientific analysis of the tape to see whether it was
tampered with before he received it. The hypothesis
would be confirmed if erasures or noise superimposed
on sections of that tape were found by such an analysi s.
With regard to the rest of Nixon's tapes which
are still in Gerald Ford's possession and control,
there may be many references to assassinations and
cover-ups. Rather than go through all of them and
edit or erase the critical material, it is much more
likely that Ford will either turn them over to Nixon
for total destruction, or sit on them forever without
letting anyone not in the "inner circle" hear them.
The Evidence for This Hypothesis

The evidence supporting this hypothesis is as
follows:
1. Nixon was White House action officer·on Cuban invasion plans 1960. Source: "Compulsive Spy,"
Tad Szulc, Viking Press, 1974
2. Nixon was in contact with Hunt, and others during Bay of Pigs planning. Source: Nixon, Bay
of Pigs & Watergate -- R. E. Sprague, C&A -January, 1973
3. Nixon lied to the American people by his own admission about the Bay of Pigs during his TV debates with Kennedy in 1960. Source: "Six Crises" by Richard M. Nixon
4. Nixon was linked financially to the Mafia and
the Cuban Casino operations before Castro took
over. Source: "Nixon and the Mafia," Jeff Gerth,
Sundance, December, 1972

5. Nixon was acquainted with Hunt, Barker, Martinez,
Sturgis, Carlos Prio Soccarros, and other Watergate people and anti Castro people in Florida,
and was financially linked with Barker, Martinez,
and Soccarros. Source: "Nixon & the Mafia" and
"Nixon, Bay of Pigs & Watergate"
6. Hunt, Barker, Sturgis & Soccarros were connected
with the assassination Cabal in the murder of JFK.
Source: R. Sprague -- several articles lately.
CIA article, Nixon Bay of Pigs article, Bullets
or Ballots
7. Nixon was in Dallas for three days including the
morning of the assassination. He was trying to
stir up trouble for Kennedy. Source: Warren
Commission Exhibits -- Vol. 23, Pages 941-943
8. Nixon went to Dallas under false pretenses. There
was no Board meeting of the Pepsi Cola Company as
he announced his law firm had to attend. Source:
Pepsi Cola Co. list of board meetings. Corporate
Records
9. Nixon did not admit being in Dnllas on the day
Kennedy was shot and did not revenl the true reason for his trip. lie held two press conferences
on the two days before the assassination subtly
attacking both Kennedy and Johnson and emphasizing the Democratic political problems in Texas.
Source: Warren Commission Exhibits -- Vol. XXII,
Pages 941-943

29

10. Research indicates that Nixon either knew in advance about the Cabal's plans, or learned about
them soon after the assassination. Source: Trowbridge Ford, "Letter to House Commi ttee on the
Judiciary," Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass.
June, 1974.
11. Nixon proposed to Lyndon Johnson that Gerald
Ford serve on the Warren Commission. Source:
Trowbridge Ford, "Letter to Judiciary Committee"
12. Ford led the Commission cover-up by controlling
the questioning of key witnesses and by several
other means. Source: Trowbridge Ford, Holy
Cross College, Worcester, Mass. "Letter to Judiciary Committee"
13. Ford helped plant the idea that Oswald was the
only assassin and that there was no conspiracy,
firmly in the minds of the American public by
publi shing HIS OWN BOOK, and ti tling it, "Lee
Harvey Oswald -- Portrait of THE Assassin".
Source: Ford's book, "Lee Harvey Oswald -- Portrait of The Assassin"
14. Ford purposefully covered up the conspiracy of
the Cabal in the JFK assassination and also covered up the fact that Oswald was a paid informer
for the FBI. He did this by dismissing the subject in his book as worthless rumor and by keeping the executive sessions of the Commission
where Oswald's FBI informer status was discussed,
classified Top Secret. Sources: Ford's book;
The Assassination of President Kennedy -- Declassification of Relevant Documents from the National Archives; R. E. Sprague -- Computers & Automation, October, 1971'
15. Ford continued the cover-up of his assassination
cover-up when he was questioned before being confirmed by the Senate as Vice President. He lied
under oath two times to the Senate Committee,
thus committing perjury. He stated that he had
written his book about Oswald with no access to
classified documents. He lied about this because his book used classified documents about
Oswald's FBI informer status. He lied when he
said that the book was titled, "Lee Harvey Oswald -- Portrait of an Assassin." This was significant in 1973 because the public by then had
become very skeptical about a lone assassin. By
changing one word in the title, Ford made the
book seem a little less like what it actually
was; an effort to make Oswald seem to be the
lone assassin. Source: Ford's book; Ford's
testimony before the Senate Committee.
16. Jaworski aided in the JFK cover-up by sitting on
evidence of conspiracy accumulated by Waggoner
Carr, Texas Attorney General, whom he represented in liaison with the Warren Commission. _ He
also stopped the critical testimony of Jack Ruby
when he was testifying before the Warren Commission, and diverted attention away from Ruby's
intent to reveal the conspiracy to kill both
Kennedy and Oswald. Sources: Dr. Tuteur, psychiatrist who interviewed Ruby in his jail cell.
"Psychiatric Examination of Jack Ruby" Mental
Health, April, 1974, Vol. 58 #2, Washington, D.C.;
Trowbridge Ford, "Letter to the Judiciary Committee"
17. Nixon became President in 1968 only because Rdbert Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy, involving the Cabal and the CIA. Nixon was well aware
of the conspiracy whether or not he approved of
it in advance. Sources: Investigation by Wil30

liam Turner and John Christian and FBI Report
on RFK assassination.
18. John Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover, joined Nixon
and the lower level members of the Cabal in covering up the RFK murder conspiracy. They classified the evidence Top Secret and murdered several witnesses, plus controlling the Judge in
the Sirhan trial, the District Attorney and ihe
Chief of Police in Los Angeles during and after
the trial. They still control these people plus
the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Clarence Kelley is now also involved. Sources:
Same as above, plus L.A. County Board Meeting
minutes and Baxter Ward hearings.
19. With knowledge of Nixon and the Cabal, the plumbers group ordered the assassination of George
Wallace in 1972, to insure Nixon's election by
picking up Wallace's vote. (About 18%-in the
polls). Source: Investigation by Committee to
Investigate Assassinations and by William Turner, 1973-74.
20. J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Helms were aware of
who killed John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and
helped cover-up both conspiracies. Sources:
a. Richard E. Sprague, "RFK Articles on Conspiracy," Computers & Automation, Oct. 1970, Sept.
1972; b. Victor Marchettis's public statements
-- December, 1973 -- about; c. Richard Helm's
and Admiral Taylor's covering up Clay Shaws'
CIA connections and paying his lawyers.
21. John Mitchell controlled the trial of Clay Shaw
and the Garrison investigation and discredited
Garrison by framing him in a New Orleans gambling case. Source: "The Framing of Jim Garrison," Richard E. Sprague, Computers & Automation,
December, 1973.
22. Nixon and Haldeman discussed the assassination
of John Kennedy, the conspiracy, Hunt's involvement, the possibility that Hunt might talk, the
cover-up, the Bay of Pigs relationship between
Nixon, Hunt and the other Cabal members, and the
briefing Nixon might have to give anyone running
against him in 1972, about these matters of "National Security." Source: Tape transcript -Nixon and Haldeman -- June 23, 1972. The majority of the tape was transcribed as being unintelligible. But Nixon mentions Hunt possibly
revealing "Hanky Panky," that we were not involved in OURSELVES. He was referring to Haldeman, Nixon and Co. All of the actions so far
revealed in Watergate would not fit that description. The assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Wallace were undoubtedly what Nixon was talking about.
Nixon also says to Haldeman when discussing Hunt
and Watergate and the other Watergate men, "It
all goes back to the Bay of Pigs, you know."
Then several "unintelligible" statements appear
in Nixon's edited transcript. Finally, Nixon
tells Haldeman he may have to "burden" the Democratic candidate, whoever it may be, by briefing
him on those matters of "National Security" on
which he was briefed by Johnson. The context
in which thi s appears, surrounded by "unintelligible" remarks, indicates Nixon was talking about
matters which would be very embarrassing and
would have to be kept secret at all .costs. This
is the tape that was probably edited and erased
partly by Nixon and Haig.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, HI7S

23. Nixon and Mitchell discussed the assassinations
and the attempt to assassinate George Wallace.
These discussions probably occurred mostly on
Nixon's Potomac yacht, but some could be on the
tapes. Mitchell executed orders to suppress the
truth about these events. Source: a. Article
by Martha Mitchell, McCall's magazine, September,
197~, with Mrs. George Wallace, discussing Nixon
and plumbers hiring Arthur Bremer; b. Public
statements by Martha Mitchell to Helen Scott,
U.P.I., Spring, 1973, concerning conversations
Nixon and Mitchell had on Nixon's yacht, about
dirty things.
24. Gerald Ford now has possession of the most critical tapes when assassinations and cover-up were
discussed. He will not let go of them or he will
give them to Nixon. Source: News stories about
White House keeping the Nixon tapes, August and
September, 1974.
25. Jaworski can be counted on to keep the assassination material under wraps even after his resignation. He is already well aware of the evidence
of conspiracy and cover-up in all three cases.
(JFK, RFK, Wallace). Source: Discussions and
meetings between this author and Watergate Senate Committee staff. Assassination evidence has
been in Ervin Committee and Jaworski's possession
since the summer of 1973. The fact that Jaworski
has not introduced any of it is indicative that
it will remain secret. His resignation would
seem to be connected in some way with the "deal"
between Nixon and Ford. It remains to be seen
whether Henry Ruth, the new Prosecutor, can be
controlled in the same manner.
26. Hunt has been taken care of and will keep silent.
He is out of jail and living on a beautiful
$100,000 estate in Florida with plenty of money,
across the street from his Bay of Pigs friend,
Manuel Artime. Source: Washington Watch newsletter, and correspondence from Tristram Coffin
-- August 10, 1974.
27. Clay Shaw was murdered by the Cabal, undoubtedly
to keep him from talking, now that the truth
about his CIA position has been revealed by Victor Marchetti. He was embalmed quickly before
the coroner could determine the cause of death.
Evidence indicates he was killed somewhere else
and then brought to his own apartment where he
was found dead. Source:' New Orleans County
Coroner's statement and eye-witnesses who were
Shaw's neighbors. Zodiac News Service, August,
1974.
28. Hale Boggs, Warren Commission member was possibly killed by the Cabal. Boggs' airplane disappeared in Alaska. No trace of it was ever
found and no explanation of how the plane could
have crashed has ever been given. Mrs. Boggs
has expressed doubts about it being an accident.
Source: News Stories -- 1972-73.
29. Four of the seven Warren Commission members have
died: Warren, Dulles, Russell and Boggs. Of
the remaining members, Ford is President, John
J. McCloy is retired and living in Connecticut
and John Sherman Cooper is the new Ambassador to
East Germany.

31. Haldeman erased 18-1/2 minutes of a taped discussion with Nixon. This tape undoubtedly contained "National Security" matters. The fact
that Haldeman did the erasing can easily be determined by tracing the trail of possession of
the tape from the day it was taken out of the
vault to the day the gap was discovered. Haldeman had the tape with the recorder alone for
nearly 48 hours. No one else, including Nixon,
had the tape alone long enough to do the erasing.
32. Ford and the "inner circle" contemplated pardons
for Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and possibly
others who know the number one secret. Source:
News Stories September 9-11, 1974. After public
and private outcries stopped this maneuver by
Ford, alternate arrangements will have to be
made to keep them all quiet.
33. Ford's statements to the sub-committee of the
House Judiciary Committee concerning his pardon
of Nixon dodged the real issue. Only Elizabeth
Holtzman asked questions coming close to the ~l
secret. When she asked about a prior agreement,
Ford said, "I have made no deal, there was no
deal, since I became Vice President." Those
last few words were not reported by the press,
but a large number of Americans watched and
heard him say them. Of course he spoke truthfully because the "deal" was made BEFORE he became Vice President.
Footnotes

1. Evans & Novak column -- September 12, 1974
2. Paris Herald Tribune -- September 12, 1974
3. "Compulsive Spy," Tad Szulc, Viking Press, 1974
~. "Nixon and the Mafia," Jeff Gerth, Sundance, December. 1972.
5. "Six Crises", Richard M. Nixon
6. "Compulsive Spy"
7. "Nixon and the Mafia"
8. "Nixon, Bay of Pigs & Watergate" -- R. E. Sprague,
Computers and Automation, January, 1973
9. "Nixon, Bay of Pigs & Watergate" -- R. E. Sprague,
Computers and Automation, January, 1973
10. Trowbridge Ford, Holy Cross College, several papers and articles
11. Warren Commission Hearings & Exhibits -- Vol. 23,
Pages 941-943
12. Nixon Transcript of June 23, 1972, tape -- N.Y.
Times, Aug. 6, 1974
13. Trowbridge Ford -- Article on Gerald Ford & Warren Commission
14. Trowbridge Ford -- Artiale on Gerald Ford & Warren Commission
15. Gerald Ford -- "Lee Harvey Oswald
Portrait of
the Assassin"
16. "The Framing of Jim Garrison," R. E. Sprague,
Computers and Automation, December, 1973
17. "The CIA and the Kennedy Assassination" -- Unpublished article by R. E. Sprague
18. Nixon tape, June 23, 1972
19. Warren Commission Exhibits -- Testimony of Jack
Ruby, Vol. V, Pages 181-213 and Vol. XIV, Pages 504-571. Also Trowbridge Ford article on
Jaworski
20. Washington Watch and Triss Coffin letter, August
10, 1974
21. Zodiac News Service release ~- August 20, 1974

30. Richard Russell, Hale Boggs and Cooper believed
there was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination.
Russell and Boggs both said so publicly. They
are dead. Cooper has said so privately.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

31

GAMES AND PUZZLES for Nimble Minds

and Computers
Neil Macdonald
Assistant Editor

It is fun to use one's mind, and it is fun to use the
artificial mind of a computer. We publish here a variety
of puzzles and problems, related in one way or another to
computer game playing and computer puzzle solving, or

to the programming of a computer to understand and
use free and unconstrained natural language.
We hope these puzzles will entertain and challenge
the readers of Computers and People.
'

SIXWORDO

NUMBLES

In this puzzle, the problem is to paraphrase a passage (a
series of connected sentences) making every new sentence
no longer than six words, the meaning to be just the same.
According to the dictionary, to paraphrase means to restate a text or passage giving the meaning in another form;
in this case there is no requirement to change or alter any
word - only the requirement of producing sentences no
longer than six words. Usually, the number of sentences
in th~ paraphrase is 4 or 5 times the number of sentences
in the original passage.

A "numb Ie" is an arithmetical problem in which: digits
have been replaced by capital letters; and there are two
messages, one which can be read right away and a second
one in the digit cipher. The problem is to solve for the
digits. Each capital letter in the arithmetical problem
stands for just one digit 0 to 9. A digit may be represented by more than one letter. The second message,
which is expressed in numerical digits, is to be translated
(using the same key) into letters so that it may be read;
but the spelling uses puns, or deliberate (but evident) misspellings, or is otherwise irregular, to discourage cryptanalytic methods of deciphering.

SIXWORDO PUZZLE 751

Within anyone context, the problem of designating
ideas is relatively easy. Most ideas are tagged with singlemeaning words. Ideas are then made clear and definite,
and we reach the happy state in which we can readily
calculate with idea-labels. In the game of chess, for
example, the following words all have a neat one-to-one
correspondence with ideas: "king, queen, bishop, rook,
knight, pawn, black, white, board, square .... " In fact,
the list of special words belonging to chess is only 30 to
40 terms long. The words belonging specifically to a
given context can conveniently be called "brick-words";
and the remaining words which can be used in a great
many contexts and which put brick-words together can
conveniently be called "cement-words".
(Hint: One solution uses 27 sentences.)

NUMBLE 751

THE

+ P 0 0 R
R T H I

+ FEE D
E 0 P

64438

124

MAXIMDIJ
In this kind of p~zzle, a maxim (common saying, proverb, some good advice, etc.) using 14 or fewer different
letters is enciphered (using a simple substitution cipher) into the 10 decimal digits or equivalent signs for them. To
compress any extra letters into the 10 digits, the encipherer
may use puns, minor misspellings, equivalents like CSor KS
for X or vice versa, etc. But the spaces between words are
kept.

MAXIMDIJ .PUZZLE 751

+0
32

NAYMANDIJ
In this kind of puzzle an array of random or pseudorandom digits ("produced by Nature") has been subjected to a
"definite systematic operation" ("chosen by Nature") and
the problem ("which Man is faced with") is to figure out
what was that operation.
A "definite systematic operation" meets the following
requirements: the operation must be performed on all the
digits of a definite class which can be designated; the result
displays some kind of evident, systematic, rational order and
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

-

completely removes some kind of randomness; the operation
must be expressible in not more than four English words.
(But Man can use more words to express it and still win.)
mation

G I ZZMO
The puzzle is to grasp relations between things that are
not identified in the usual way - their names cannot be
looked up in a dictionary - and then solve a problem
involving them.

NA YMANDIJ 751
GIZZMO 751

~]

~]

5 964 260 236 1 7 0 8 7 986 1 7
8 5 441 496 6 3 9 871 2 8 4 7 2 7
2 4 2 5 8 878 9 6 9 0 9 0 2 0 8 4 0 3
8 2 8 0 4 9 9 1 9 5 5 9 6 206 650 9
6 622 381 928 0 1 2 3 4 4 2 7 6 6
578 234 077 1 324 9 8 0 9 4 2 6
4 3 6 1 2 2 2 4 5 3 29 8 4 2 7 6 4 9 8
693 2 3 204 2 2 0 3 9 8 840 891
798 9 3 6 2 9 295 605 6 3 687 3
5 9 5 2 7 6 2 2 8 5 5 9 8 4 -1 6 6 2 0 8

~]

ALGORITHMO
In this puzzle, the objective is to express a procedure
for going in a given situation from given input to given
output. The following conditions apply: the situation is a
little off the beaten path and is interesting; the procedure
is fairly evident and fairly short; the procedure is to be
expressed in precise English words, with perhaps defined
terms in addition; the procedure is to be completely and
accurately expressed, i.e., the calculating procedure must
work.
For the following puzzle, we hope to publish in the
March issue the best solution received before Feb. 10
from a reader of Computers and People.

While we believe that there are reasonable limits to
what the HONTEMS of FLEENS should be in their entirety and to what an individual FLEEN should seek to
encompass by way of a variety of HONTEMS, we do not
consider these limits to be either crystal clear or uniformly applicable to any and all FLEENS. Many HONTEMS
can improve FLEENS; certain contrasting HONTEMS in
the same FLEEN can make the FLEEN both more interesting to its participants and more vital in its HONTEMS
because some conflicts in points of view and methodology
can be highly productive. The multipurpose FLEEN can
be more exciting than the single-purpose l~LEEN. However, we urge adoption of the many golden mean solutions
between the extreme of the all-purpose FLEEN and the
single-purpose FLEEN. Our caution is that a FLEEN can
do too much as well as too little.
What is a HONTEM? What is a FLEEN? (Hints: 1.
This puzzle is derived from a famous report by a famous
foundation. 2. But there may be more than one solution.)

We invite our readers to send us solutions. Usually
the (or "a") solution is published in the next issue.

SOLUTIONS
MAXIMDIJ 7412: Even one enemy is too many.
NUMBLE 7412: The heart has also ears.
GIZZMO 7412: GOND: superstitious belief;

ALUN: activity; ENGAD: object.
NAYMANDIJ 7412: Make row 2 even.
ALGORITHMO 751

]

Problem: State a procedure for going from a given
number N to the minimum number M of tetrahedral
numbers which added together will equal N. Also,
state the solutions. Input: A number N from 1 to
1000. Output: (1) The minimum number M. (2)
The solutions for M. Example: For N equal to 16,
the minimum number M is 4. There are two solutions
for 16: 10 + 4 + 1 + 1 ; 4 + 4 + 4 + 4.
Definition: The tetrahedral numbers are numbers of
the form k(k+ l)(k+2)/6, where k is a positive integer.
The first six tetrahedral numbers are 1, 4, 10, 20, 35,
56, .... A tetrahedral number is so named because it
counts the number of round balls composing a solid
tetrahedron of round balls.
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

6 7
164
2 4
5 4
6 7
9 1
2 9
3 7
2 9
2 2

8
0
8
9
3
3
3
9
9
6

8 1 0
0 0 9 0 0 4 3 6 4 6 4 2 9
6 0 4 604 0 886 8 0 4 8 8 6 6
3 840 6 9 741 444 901 5 8
5 2 7 0 3 2 2 7 3 6 8 8 2 267 3
8 7 554 7 7 3 4 789 9 8 7 6 0
5 5 9 1 001 454 869 2 5 7 0
601 154 1 8 1 6 8 232 399
7 3 664 259 1 000 334 8 8
7 6 1 4 8 8 5 4 957 7 2 255 7
0 4 9 5 566 1 084 4 8 7 946

I

Our thanks to the following individuals for sending us
their solutions to - NUMBLE 7411: Abraham Schwartz,
Jamaica, NY.
33

Computing and Data Processing Newsletter

CAMBRIDGE MASS. USES COMPUTER TO
FOIL SCHOOL VANDALS

Incidents of vandalism in Cambridge schools have
dropped dramatically this year, according to Oliver
Brown, assistant superintendent of schools.
"The combined efforts of the School Committee,
police .. ci ty electricians, parents and residents
have reduced damage costs from $3700 a month to $335
a month since the beginning of the year," said Brown.
A l2-point plan initiated last fall brought about
a decrease from 37 incidents a month to about seven,
Brown said.
Police also said that a man who bought stolen
school goods, then attempted to sell them back to
the School Department, was recently apprehended.

BRAILLE COMPUTER TERMINAL DEVELOPED IN AUSTRALIA
John Coleman
Australian Information Service
636 Fifth Ave.
New York, N. Y. 10020

A device which enables blind people to read information provided by a computer has been developed
in Melbourne, Australia.
Mr. Tony Brown, 29, a blind electrical engineering graduate of Monash University in Melbourne and
a member of the university staff since 1971, has
developed the braille printing device to supplement
the teletype machine which is normally used by computer operators to give instructions to and receive
information from a computer.

Each article of school equipment is now stenciled
in code.
The vandalism has been computerized with each incident recorded, including all details, to ~how a
pattern which police can follow up.
Date, time, place, how entrance was gained, the
nature of the incident, and the cost of the loss are
noted in the computer banks.
Through this method, school and police officials
analyze where vandalism occurs and where vandals
might strike again.
Parents, teachers and residents are made aware
of the sites of frequent vandalism, and they give
valuable assistance.
Electronic surveillance equipment has been installed in schools where vandalism occurs most frequently.
Police cruisers respond to school alarms in "one
to three minutes," Brown said.
In another phase of the plan, locks in school
buildings have been changed to make illegal entry
by keys almost impossible.
As an added incentive, $1 for each student in
each school has been set aside to pay for vandalism
in addition to the normal educational funds.
Money not used for vandalism due to its decline
may be used by each individual school for educational, recreational or aesthetic projects, Brown said.
Vandalism cost the Cambridge School Department
$34,123 for the first nine months, but many of the
thefts and much of the damage occurred before the
new plan was implemented.
34

The machine consists of a standard teletype terminal with keyboard and print-out facilities, a
braille typewriter which has been converted to automatic operation, and a mini-computer which receives
information from the main computer, stores it and
then converts it to a form which can be printed on
the braille typewriter. The same information is
also relayed to the standard teletype terminal
printer.
The terminal was developed over the past two
years as a part-time project by Mr. Brown in conjunction with the computer centre's director, Dr.
Cli ff Bellamy.
It was financed by a $A7500 grant from the William Buckland Foundation.
Mr. Brown, who has been blind since he was 18,
said that other systems of braille computer printouts had been devised such as using only the periods
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January. 1975

on a standard printer; but that these tended to be
difficult to program and to read.
The new terminal designed and built by the computer centre combines great flexibility with high quality of output.
The prototype model will undergo some refinement
and then it will be tested by other blind computer
programmers and with other computers.

Consultants' fees depend on the size of the school
system and the extent of services required by the
school committee.
Among the consultants which offer computerized bus
routing are: LKB Systems of Syosset, NoY.; Programmed Transportation of Penfield, N.Y.; Westinghouse
Learning Corp., of Waltham; and Educational Coordinates, of Princeton, N.J.
Leo P. Turo, director of the state Board of Education's school management services, is skeptical about
paying private consultants for bus scheduling.

THREE COMMUNITIES IN MASSACHUSETTS MAKE SAVINGS
WITH COMPUTERIZED SCHOOL-BUS ROUTES

Massachusetts school transportation costs, which
last year topped $55 million, have been forced sharply upward this year by inflationary pressures -- such
as higher vehicle cost~ increased oil prices and rising bus drivers' salaries -- not to mention extra
court-ordered busing in Boston and Springfield.
But computerized bus routing has chopped more
than $100,000 from 1974 school transportation budgets in Braintree, Brockton and Taunton.
School officials in those communities hired consultants to survey local traffic patterns, locations
of students' homes and school destinations, then developed plans for more efficient use of school buses.
"The consultants did everything we asked and
more," said Taunton School Supt. Edward Aleixo.
Aleixo said 57 buses formerly were used to cover
87 routes in the city. Now there are nine more
routes but only 33 buses.
Taunton's savings may have been augmented by competition among four bus companies for a share of the
contract. Each route was bid separately.
Long said the consultants proposed several alternate busing programs for Brockton. "We decided not
to adopt staggered school closing hours," Long said,
"but wi th more efficient scheduling we cut our transportation budget about 8 percent last year."
In Taunton, the cutback in the number of buses
required adjustment of school starting times. The
high school classes start at 8 a.m., middle school
at 8:30 and elementary grades at 9.
In these and other communities with recently revamped schedules, school officials report there were
some parental complaints during the early weeks of
school.
Longer bus routes or double bus trips forced
some students to leave home earlier than in past
years.
Younger children on an early bus may tire more
easily than older students, and they need extra supervision if they arrive at school 20 minutes or
more before classes begin.

Turo said his office assists public schools with
scheduling, contracts, safety and other busing problems -- all without cost to the school system.
Hull School Supt. Richard Charlton said Turo's
department helped his community write specifications
for its transportation contract but did not restructure bus routes.
Some school officials reject use of consultants,
contending that local school bus coordinators know
their community and its transportation problems better than any outside consultant could in a few weeks.
One school official disagreed. "I don't think we
could have done as well by ourselves."
Brockton's Girard Long said: "Most routes were
set up years ago and only changed when buses became
overcrowded. No one in the school department has
time to plot the location of every student's home.
If some company is equipped to do this and can save
us money, why not take advantage of it?"

MANY RADIO MUSIC STATIONS ARE RUN BY COMPUTER

A current development is the automated radio
station run by computer. According to Broadcast
Magazine, more than half the FM radio stations in
the country are now completely automated, with more
scheduled to take that route in the near future.
This magazine also reports that automation is making
gradual inroads in the AM market.
Here's how a system works. A station hires a
programming company and tells it what type of format is desired -- adult rock, beautiful music, top40, etc. The programming company then chooses the
actual music to be played and the order the songs
are to be played in, based on what has been successful for other stations with the same format. The
songs are taped and sent to the station, where they
are simply put into the computer and played one after another automatically.
At some stations, even the commercials are taped
beforehand. Then all a station has to do is to keypunch an order to the computer telling it when to
use a certain commercial. It's done without a single human being ever having to touch the tape.

As more children are assigned to each bus, dis~
ciplinary problems may increase, and safety analysts
may become concerned about standees.

One general manager stressed cost as a major advantage of the automated systems. "One or two announcers to tape your commercials, a couple of people
to be with the computer 24 hours a day, and there's
your broadcasting staff."

"If you're going to save this much money, something has got to give somewhere," said Braintree's
School Committee chairman, Mrs. John Grabosky, who
added that Braintree's busing costs dropped from
$368,000 in 1973 to approximately $253,600 this year.

To people who complain that an automated station
has a "canned" sound, he replies, "These days the
computers are so sophisticated that unless wo toll
people we're automated, they'd never know."

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for January, 1975

35

The 6th cumulative edition of

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AND DATA PROCESSING"
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