197501

January,

computers

and

people

formerly

Computers

and

Automation

SNOWFLAKE

VIGNET

TE

by

Judy

Ki

ntzinger

and

Grace

C.

Hertlein

<"\

0 1 1

_r"

·./let::,

10\

'IBRAP

",

<:)T

Vo

l.

24, No. 1

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,

Ma-

chines, Animals,

and Men

-Lawrence

M.

Clark

The Teaching

of

Com-

puter

SC

.ience:

Mas-

ter

of

Science De-

gree

-

J.

N.

Sn

yder

Nixon,

Ford, and

the

Political

Assassina

-

tions in the United

States

-Richard

E.

Sprague

MULTI-ACCESS

FORUM

"MAY

I

HAVE

YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER, PLEASE?"

Ed Burnett

Ed Burnett Consultant

176 Madison A venue

New York,

NY

10016

In

"The

Evolution

of

Telephone Connecting"

by

William

J.

McLoughlin,

Jr.,

published

in

the

Septem-

ber

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?

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

indi-

vidual,

and

if

this

number

coincides,

an

order

can

then

be

placed.

If

there

is

any

fumbling,

the

com-

puter

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.

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:

"P.O.

Box

69,"

instead

of

"Box

69".

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.

I

am

attempting

to

spread

the

word.

Editorial Note:

Rush

Harp's

copies

are

now

addres-

sed "Box 69" and

not

"P.O.

Box

69".

We

regret

the

error.

P.S.: Computers

OFTEN

make

errorsl

--

E.C.B.

2

THE

PURPOSE

OF 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 be-

havior, and the pursuit

of

truth

in input,

output,

and processing.

Your participation is cordially invited.

COMPUTER

ART

EXPOSITION

ISSUES

FOR 12 YEARS

Irene Angelico

Centre

for

Interdisciplinary Studies

Concordia

Univ.

2010 Mackay

Montreal, P.O.,

Canada

I

am

giving

a

course

on

the

relationship

of

art

and

science

in

the

twentieth

century,

and

will

de-

vote

some

time

to

computer

art.

If

you would send

me

reprints

of

the

12

annual

computer

art

exposi-

tions

(or

issues

if

reprints

are

not

available)

...

I would be most

grateful.

Editorial Note:

Reprints

are

not

available

but

back

copies

are,

and

they

may

be

ordered

from

us.

COMPUTER

ART

REPORT

Both

the

computer

art

on

the

front

cover

"Snow-

flake

Vignette"

and

the

computer

art

on

page 3 "Ap-

ple

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

com-

puter

program, and

then

repeated

in

a

rotated

pat-

tern;

then

the

entire

design,

as

a

larger

module,

was

again

repeated

in

rotation

and

recorded

on

micro-

film.

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

photographical-

ly

and

manipulated

in

various

ways

to

produce

sev-

eral

partially

overlapping

prints

with

different

de-

grees

of

lightness

and

darkness.

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,

his-

tory,

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

by

Judy

Kintzinger and Grace

C.

Hertlein

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January,

1975

3

Editor and

Publisher

Assistant

Editors

Art

Editor

Software

Editor

Contributing

Editors

Vol.

24, No. 1

January, 1975

Edmund C. Berkeley

Barbara

L.

Chaffee

Linda Ladd Lovett

Neil D. Macdonald

Grace C. Hertlein

Stewart

B. Nelson

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

Ed

Burnett

Committee James

J.

Cryan

Editorial

Offices

Advertising

Contact

Bernard

Quint

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.

815

Washington St.

Newtonville,

MA

02160

617-332-5453

The

Publisher

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.

815

Washington St.

Newtonville,

MA

02160

617-332-5453

"Computers

and

People,"

formerly

"Computers

and

Automation,"

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issues

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NOTE:

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©

Copyright

1975,

by

Berkeley

Enter-

prises,

Inc.

Change

of

address:

If

your

address

changes,

please

send

us

both

your

new

address

and

your

old

address

(as

it

ap-

pears

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?" [F]

by

Ed

Burnett,

Ed

Burnett

Consultant, New York, N.Y.

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 infor-

mation and ideas?

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.

Computers, Art, and the Humanities

[A]

[E]

2

Second

International Conference on Computers and

the

[F]

Humanities -Call

for

Papers and

Art

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 [P]

by

Judy

Kintzinger and Grace

C.

Hertlein

3 Apple Blossom Vignette [P]

by

Judy

Kintzinger

and

Grace C. Hertlein

2

Computer

Art

Report

[F]

An explanation

of

the

construction

of

the

two

vignettes.

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.

Computers

and

Education

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

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

The Profession

of

Information Engineer

and

the

Pursuit

of

Truth

27

Nixon,

Ford,

and

the

Political Assassinations in

the

[A]

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.

19

Unsettling,

Disturbing, Critical

Statement

of

policy

by

Computers

and

People

Computers, Puzzles, and Games

[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

arithmet-

ical

relations.

SIXWORDO

-Paraphrasing a passage

into

sentences

of

not

more

than

six

words

each.

Corrections

2

Box

No. vs. P.O. Box No.

[F]

by

Rush

Harp, Bearsville, N.Y.

A

human

error

corrected

for

computer

output.

Who's

Who

in

Computers

and

Data Processing

6th

Cumulative

Edition,

planned

for

1975

36

26

Notice

Entry

form

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January,

1975

Q)~~

\jQQ~~

G'0J>80&

•

Q'

~-

11-*

@

r;:[)

R-

-*

.J

'0~*r.1Q

G~~

~

\?

Q.,

II

*

*-

\)

& 0

lb

<::J

(k

\)

iG.

ANNUAL

INDEX

FOR 1974

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

I

ndex

Ed

itor,

Computers and

People.

E .r-J E

'(

l

""

E

!..

t6)

,......

ev

? E

ri)fY)

'1

e~

Key

[A]

[C]

[E]

[F]

[P]

E'l.

Article

Monthly

Column

Editorial

Forum

Picture

NOTICE

*0

ON

YOUR

ADDRESS

IMPRINT

MEANS

THAT

YOUR

SUBSCRIP-

TION

INCLUDES

THE

COMPUTER

DIRECTORY.

*N

MEANS

THAT

YOUR

PRESENT SUBSCRIPTION

DOES

NOT

INCLUDE

THE

COM-

PUTER

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

in-

cluding

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

cre-

ative

realm

that

man,

the

living

agent,

is

in-

imitable

--

thus

far.

I looked

up

defini

tions

of

"create"

and

"creati

v-

I

ty":

create:

to

bring

into

existence;

to

bring

a-

bout

a

course

of

action;

to

produce

through

imaginative

skill;

to

design,

invent,

de-

vi

se;

creative:

productive;

innovative;

formative;

constructive;

generative;

having

the

qual-

ity

of

something

created

rather

than

imita-

ted.

Then I

read

again

parts

of

a famous

essay

"Mathe-

matical

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

mathe-

matical

entities

already

known.

Anyone

could

do

that,

but

tha

combinations

would be

infi-

nite

in

number and most

of

them

absolutely

without

interest.

To

create

consists

precise-

ly

in

not

making

useless

combinations

and

in

making

those

which

are

useful

and which

are

only

a small

minority.

Invention

is

discern-

ment,

choice.

A modern computer (which

Poincare

never

knew

a-

bout)

,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

re-

qUirements,at

least

a thousand

times

faster

than

a

human

being

can.

So

the

argument,

it

seems

to

me,

reduces

to

recog-

nizing

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

art-

ist

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 sym-

6

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

checkers-

playing

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

auth-

thor.

This

program

is

not

"obedient"

about

checkers;

it

"knows"

far

more

than

Dr. Samuels does

about

check-

ers;

it

makes

decisions

for

itself;

and

it

revises

and improves

those

decisions

in

the

light

of

experi-

ence.

Second,

there

is

ordinary

creativity.

Suppose a

kindergarten

teacher

calls

Johnny's

pictures

"crea-

tive".

Well, a computer

with

a random number

gen-

erator

and a

graphic

output

can

do

just

as

well

pro-

ducing

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

com-

puter

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

com-

puter

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

1-

It

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."

Outline

Part

1.

A Survey of Languages

1.

Telling

Computers

What

to

Do

2.

Listening

to

Computers

3.

The

Problem

of

Wrong

Instructions

4.

Artificial

Languages

for

Instructing

Computers

5.

Ordinary

Natural

Language

for

Instructing

Compu-

ters

6.

Languages

Among

Machines That

Are

Not

Computers

7.

Languages

Among

Animals

8.

Languages

Among

Men

9.

Essential

Features

of

a

Natural

Language

Part

2.

The

Designation

of Meaning

1.

Linguistic

Constraints

Upon

Thinking

2.

The

Words

for

"A

Group

of"

3.

The

Misleading

of

Thought

by

Language

4.

The

Words

for

Mathematical

Ideas

5.

How

to

Improve

the

Designation

of

Meaning

The purpose of

this

article

is

to

report

on

a

num-

ber

of

aspects

of

language,

to

discuss

some

signifi-

cant

problems of

designation

of

meaning, and

to

indi-

cate

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. 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

use-

ful,

then

one

regularly

has

to

tell

it

what

to

do

and

how

to

do

it;

and

this

requires

a system

for

giving

instructi

ons.

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

program-

ming

or

makes

the

software

has

to

learn

a system

for

instructing

the

computer, a

language.

This

requirement

implies

that

you

(or

your

sub-

stitute)

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

as-

sociated

with

the

use

of

computers.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

2. Listening

to

a

Computer

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

termi-

nal

or

non-shared

console,

you can

get

so

much

re-

sponse

that

you

reach

rather

full

and

adequate

two-

way

communication.

This

is

an

important

additional

dimension

of

lan-

guage;

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

refer-

ences

"The

Personality

of

the

Interactive

Programmed

Computer" /

2/

and "Computers

in

Inner-Ci

ty

Class-

rooms"/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

con-

clusion,

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,

rea-

lize

what you

did

that

was

wrong, and

act

differently.

A

still

better

system happens

when

the

computer

que-

ries

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

calcu-

lation,

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

gen-

eral

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

inten-

ded.

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

pro-

cedures

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

Compu-

tation

Laboratory

with

the

Harvard

IBM

Automatic

Se-

quence

Controlled

Calculator

Mark

I,

it

was

necessary

to

write

instructions

in

fine

detail.

These were

sequences

of

24

ones and

zeroes

in

bottom-level

"ma-

chine

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

con-

nected

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

compu-

ter,

and would

allow

the

programmer

to

designate

lo-

cations

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

(calcula-

ting

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

lan-

guage

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

insist-

ing

on

properly

matched

pairs

of

parentheses

(mathe-

matical

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

atten-

tion

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

Uni-

versity,

Xerox

Corp.,

and

elsewhere.

A

series

of

articles

on

"Computer Programming Us-

ing

Natural

Language" has been

published

in

this

magazi ne. See

Reference

/ 3 / •

The

evi

dence

of-

fered

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

(Re-

port

Program

Generator

Model

2).

In

this

language a

good

deal

of

the.

information

for

programming a com-

puter

to

cover

a

particular

business

application

con-

sists

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

applica-

tion.

So

much

for

the

present

discussion

of

the

state

of computer

languages.

Let us

turn

now

to

consider-

ing

languages

in

other

areas.

6.

Languages

Among

Machines

that

Are

Not Computers

Many

machines

that

are

never

thought

of

as com-

puters

also

require

a system

for

communicating

be-

tween

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

ma-

chine.

It

contains

many

pieces

of

apparatus

(odome-

ter,

speedometer,

fuel

gauge,

oil

pressure

indicator,

etc.)

for

communicating

information

to

the

driver,

and

for

receiving

instructions

from

the

driver

(steer-

ing

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

o

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

appro-

priately

associated

with

the

outgoing

signals

to

act-

ing

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

mean-

ing

in

the

same

way

as

in

mathematics,

where

the

ex-

pression

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

na-

tural

languages,

and

utter

sounds.

For example,

now-

adays

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

mes-

sage

it

repeats

those

digits

once more.

7.

Languages Among Animals

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

refer-

ence/lO~

A

colony

of

jackdaws

that

nested

on

and

near

his

house were

able

to

do

a

fair

amount

of

com-

municating

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

con-

veyed

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

var-

ied

the

location

of

the

dish,

and

observed

the

behav-

ior

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

in-

dicated

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

an-

gle

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.

Occasion-

ally,

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

ap-

parently

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

in-

vestigators,

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 com-

puter

and a

new

language

called

Yerkish

created

es-

pecially

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

"Commu-

nication

--

Three-Way: Chimpanzee,

Man,

Computer,"

Reference/

7/.

8.

Languages Among

Man

Of

all

the

tools

of

human

beings,

language,

equip-

ment

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

sep-

arate

items

of

language can be used

as

markers,

as

counters,

for

the

process

of

reasoning

and

thinking.

What

is

language?

Basically,

language

is

equip-

ment

for

referring

to

and

handling

all

the

ideas,

situations,

and

experiences

that

a

society

is

inter-

ested

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

get-

ting

answers;

reasoning;

describing

strange

ideas

in

terms

of

familiar

ones;

expressing

emotions and

feel-

ings;

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,

lan-

guage

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

faith-

fully

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.

Europe and Asia

Africa

North America

South America

Total

Table 1

. Approximate

No.

of

Languages Spoken

720

530

240

~

1730

Among

these

languages

there

is

a tremendous

va-

riety.

Many

of

them

make

neat

and

felicitous

dis-

tinctions

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

symboliz-

ing

ideas

has always been

the

sounds

that

human

be-

ings

could

utter

and

hear.

Other

languages

such

as

writing

are

secondary.

The sounds

that

occur

in

languages have been

in-

ventoried

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. Phonemes

do

not

have meanings

in

themselves.

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

Ari-

zona. There

are

about

40 phonemes

in

English,

about

17

of vowel

type,

and

23

of

consonant

type.

In

every

language phonemes

are

arranged

and

as-

sembled

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 (mor-

phemes)

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

lan-

guage,

contains

over

500,000 words.

Every language

recognizes

single

complete

lin-

guistic

utterances

--

which

are

often

called

sen-

tences,

although

that

term

is

not

inclusive

enough.

Every

language

has

rules

for

assembling

words and

word

elements

into

utterances.

These

rules

are

call-

ed grammar and

syntax.

Every

known

language has

in-

tricate

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

sum-

marizing,

vague. For example,

nearly

every

language

has a word

for

"the

sun";

and

all

the

different

mani-

festations

of

the

sun

at

dawn,

at

noonday,

at

sun-

set,

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

situa-

tions

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

re-

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January, 1975

\

-;4

quired

to

specify

"animate

or

inanimate."

We

run

in-

to

the

problem

when

we

have

to

say

"who

or

what

made

this

letter?"

In

Chinese,

one does

not

have

to

spe-

cify

singular

or

plural

unless

one

desires

to.

In

Chinese,

the

word

for

"horse"

means

"horse"

or

"hor-

ses";

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

impor-

tant

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

whe-

therthe

uncle

was

the

father's

brother

or

the

moth-

er'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

al-

most

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 demon-

stratives.

And

of

course

in

the

English

of

news-

paper

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

cer-

tain

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

ex-

perience

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

neces-

sary

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

with-

out

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

re-

port

on

these

words

introduced

since

1963

is

in

the

book by

Clarence

Barnhart.

See

reference/

1

/.

Edward

Sapir

(1884-1939), an American

anthropolo-

gist,

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

expres-

sion

for

their

society.

It

is

quite

an

il-

lusion

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

other-

wise

experience

very

largely

as

we

do

because

the

language

habits

of

our

community

predis-

pose

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,

propa-

ganda,

etc.

Consider

George

Orwell's

remark

in

"1984"

(published

by

Harcourt

Brace,

New

Xork,

many

editions):

The

purpose

of

Newspeak

was

not

only

to

pro-

vide

a

medium

of

expression

for

the

world-

view 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

con-

straint.

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

travel-

ling

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

cir-

cus,

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

de-

liberately

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

in-

sects"

and

"herd"

implies

"a

group

of

large

animals."

Of

course,

there

is

almost

no

logical

sense

in

vary-

ing

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,

Cul-

ture,

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

surround-

ing

the

start

of

fires,

and

in

some

cases,

of

ex-

plosions.

My

analysis

was

directed

toward

purely

physical

conditions,

such

as

defective

wiring,

pres-

ence

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

re-

vealed.

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

hazar-

dous;

but

the

linguistic

analysis

according

to

regu-

lar

analogy

must employ

the

word

"empty,"

which

in-

evitably

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

gen-

eral

formula

for

the

linguistic

conditioning

of

be-

havior

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

lime-

stone."

After

a

period

of

use,

the

fire

below one

of

the

stills

spread

to

the

"limestone,"

which

to

everyone's

great

surprise

burned

vigorously.

Ex-

posure

to

acetic

acid

fumes from

the

stills

had

con-

verted

part

of

the

limestone

(calcium

carbonate)

to

calcium

acetate.

This

when

heated

in

a

fire

decom-

poses,

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

set-

tling

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

decom-

posing

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

mathe-

matical

ideas.

The

special

linguistic

ways

in

which

mathematicians

talk

about

mathematics have

developed

for

more

than

2000

years.

For example,

the

formula

A

=1rr

2

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

con-

structed

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

--

num-

bers,

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

lan-

guage, you can

talk

to

some

extent

about

numbers,

lines,

points,

etc.,

and

their

relations.

In

ordi-

nary

language,

you can even

calculate

to

some

extent.

And,

using

ordinary

language,

you

are

often

interes-

ted

in

deducing

the

necessary

consequences

of

some

suppositions.

Accordingly

the

difference

between

mathematics and

ordinary

language

is

partly

a

dif-

ference

of

quality,

but

also

a

difference

of

degree.

It

is

reasonable

to

believe

that

if

you have a

de-

sirable

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

ac-

cording

to

rules

that

pay

little

attention

to

mean-

ings,

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

Communi-

cation"

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

talk-

ing

about does

not

stop

us from

talking.

We

simply

operate

on

names and

properties

accord-

ing

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

deri-

vation.

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

be-

tween

different

expressions

for

closely

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

pro-

duced

the

word "Ms." (pronounced

"miz")

so

that

a

woman

can be

addressed

politely

without

the

designa-

tion

of

whether

or

not

she

is

married.

This

is

ob-

viously

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,

trans-

lating

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

in-

put.

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

ex-

pressions,

statements

and

discourse

in

ordinary

na-

tural

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

In-

teractive

Programmed Computer,"

in

"Computers and

Automation,"

Dec.,

1969

3.

Berkeley,

Edmund

C.,

Andy

Langer,

and

Casper

Ot-

ten,

"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

For

purposes

of

this

article

I

propose

a simple

and

perhaps

novel

classification

of computer

appli-

cations

--

in

three

classes.

The

Computer

Advises

Applications

that

do

not

lead

to

decisions

affect-

ing

humans

directly

--

Examples

come

largely

from

the

field

of

numerical

computation,

the

earliest

cate-

gory

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 exam-

ple,

someone

may

be

denied

credit

or

refused

an

em-

ployment

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

circum-

stances.

The

Computer

Decides, and if

not

Countermanded

Ac~s

(the

Robot)

Applications

where

the

computer has been

previous-

ly

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

col-

lision

avoidance

systems,

automatic

transportation

.

systems

(i.e.,

BART,

in

San

Francisco),

and

auto-

mobile

braking

and

antiskid

systems.

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

applica-

tion.

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-steer-

ing,

a boon

when

it

operates,

perhaps,

but

a

defi-

nite

danger

when

power

fails

or

is

turned

off.

"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

A

pair

of

questions

indicates

a

possible

dilemma:

Q:

Does

technology

exist

to

integrate

compu-

ter

components

very

closely

into

human

af-

fairs?

A:

Yes. For an example,

see

the

1974

US

auto-

mobiles,

which

will

not

operate

unless

seat

belts

are

fastened.

Q:

Are system

design

and good

practice

manu-

als

available

for

such a

level

of

tech-

nology,

and/or

is

suitable

indoctrination

and

education

available

in

our

educational

institutions?

A:

Emphatically

NO!

This

fact

is

frightening

enough

to

suggest

a moratorium

on

such

de-

velopments

until

we

understand

the

tool

better.

Inoperable

Robots

Consider

the

announcement

of

an

experimental

de-

vice

which

requires

matching a

certain

procedure

be-

fore

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

hav-

ing

a

customer

engineer

to

fix

it.

But nobody

re-

membered

to

find

out

whether

the

customer

engineers

would always be

available

over

the

weekend, and

speedily.

As

reported,

a

patient

died

because

con-

fusion

in

the

human

system caused

the

computer

to

remain

inoperable.

Space

Effort

Experience in Overriding

Robots

Certainly

the

US

space

effort

has

gathered

ample

experience

in

the

matter

of

letting

computers

de-

cide,

when

they

are

capable

of

it,

and

of

overrid-

ing

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

:i,

t

m

o

d

1-

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

care-

ful

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

ar-

son. 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

ab-

solute

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

analy-

sis

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.

I

quote

from an

interview

with

Dr.

Carl

Hammer

of

Univac,

regarding

a

conversation

with

V.

A.

Trap-

eznikov,

acting

Co-Chairman of

the

United

States

and

Russian

Joint

Commission

on

Scientific

and

Techni-

cal

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

man-

kind

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

in-

ternational

models

for

improving our

decisionmaking

processes.

Decisions

which

at

this

time

are

made

on

a

political

or

emotional

base,

neither

way

will

pro-

duce

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

Carl

Hammer

says

"We

have

already

built

into

our

society

a

mind-amplifying

factor

of

2000

to

one. Be-

hind

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

to-

day,

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

ad-

vertising

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

know-

ledge

power,

of

the

kind

that

has been used

through-

out

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 com-

puter

misuse

in

prejudicing

the

population

against

a

valuable

tool,

and

of

misuse by

corrupt

or

ignorant

officials.

There

are

no

known

instances

of computers

volun-

tarily

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

in-

to

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

com-

pany 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

lar-

ger

entities,

such

as

corporations,

to

fool

or

de-

fraud.

It

may

be so used even by governments, how-

ever

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

gen-

eral

public.

Countering

the

argument

that

minicom-

puters,

microcomputers,

and hand

calculators

are

available

to

individuals

at

low

cost,

he

said

that

it

was

a

fallacy

to

assume

that

this

meant

that

com-

puter

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

im-

parting

basic

computer

skills

(and

problem-solving

techniques)

would be

given

as

much

emphasis

as

learn-

ing

one's

own

language would be

unnecessary

over-

specialization.

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

compu-

ter

services

to

be

provided

by

municipalities

and/or

private

ventures.

One

can imagine

data

banks

that

could

serve

as

advisories

for

human

action

and

choi-

ces.

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

efficien-

cy,

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

every-

one

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

auto-

mobile.

This has

caused

some

disallocation

and un-

ease,

which

the

practitioners

have

not

been

able

to

avoid.

Most

major

tools,

when

introduced,

have had

their

custodians,

and

then

their

guilds

or

profes-

sions

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

"authori-

tativeness."

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 com-

puter

now

•••

".

The

Allen Piano Co. Lie

The

Allen

Piano and Organ

Company

of

Phoenix

ad-

vertised

by

radio

that

its

computer had

made

a

mis-

take

in

ordering

inventory;

they

were

now

overstocked

and were

therefore

holding

a

sale.

I

wrote

the

com-

pany a

letter,

on

behalf

of

the

Association

for

Com-

puting

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 acknow-

ledge

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

faci-

lities.

Note

the

convictions

of

the

advertisers

that

a

computer would

give

authority

to

their

spurious

claim

of

overstocking.

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

solicita-

tion,

asking

them

to

please

spell

it

correctly.

Not

16

DUNGER,

and

not

D

UNGER,

and

not

Dunger

(for

those

with

lower

case

capability).

He

received

several

replies,

all

saying

that

it

was

unfortunately

impos-

sible

with

their

computer equipment.

Learning

of

this

from

his

letter

to

Computerworld, I

called

sev-

eral

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

hor-

ror

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!

The

Authority

of

the

Computer

as an Accomplice

The

computer

is

a

convenient

means

of

implicitly

or

explicitly

covering

activities

that

run from

il-

legal

to

self-serving,

intentional

or

unintentional.

The

notorious

Equity

Funding

scandal

will

certain-

ly

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

opera-

tion,

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

col-

lusion.

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

type-

written

(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

Pro-

tection

Agency. Then,

taking

the

lead

from

the

pres-

ent

requirement

to

make

notification

on

cigarette

packages

that

"cigarette

smoking

is

dangerous

to

your

health,"

it

could

order

that

each

computer-

printed

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"

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

prin-

ted

a

diagnostic

indicating

an

entry

into

the

middle

of

a

DO

loop.

The

General

in

charge

indicated

that

COMPUTERS

and

PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

I.':'

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."

The

Computer

as

a Sewage

System

A well-known

trui

sm

of computer usage

is

"Garbage

in,

Garbage

Out."

But what happens

when

we

put

per-

fectly

valid

data

in?

Can

we

get

it

out

again?

Can

someone

else

do

so?

If

it

does

come

out,

is

it

leg-

ible?

We

still

live

in

the

computer

era

where

90%

or

more

of

the

data

depends

entirely

upon

the

associa-

ted

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

pro-

gram

rather

than

to

the

data

itself?

Do

you need a program

to

read

a book

in

the

li-

brary?

At

ACM

70, Dr. John Richardson

of

the

US

Dept.

of

Commerce

said

"Information

Conserves Re-

sources

Through

Better

Decisions,"

but

some

of

the

valuable

data

that

we

need

to

make

those

better

de-

cisions

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

re-

liable

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

deci-

sions.

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

be-

tween

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

en-

tire

country,

much

less

the

world

--

if

that

possi-

bility

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 im-

possible.

"Data"

it

was.

The

Las Vegas

city

police

and county

sheriff's

department

recently

consolidated

to

form a "Metro-

poli

tan"

Force.

It

will

be

many

years

before

their

computerized

data

files

can

also

be

consolidated

to

be

of

efficient

use.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

Of

course

this

particular

manifestation

of

swal-

lowing

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."

Computer

Failure

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

com-

puter

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,

unfor-

tunately,

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

operation-

al.

The

point

of

my

story

is

that

it

is

a

human

fail-

ing

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

re-

process

the

sewage.

We

have

given

the

computer

val-

id

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

re-

strictions

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

Infor-

mation

Processing

Societies).

AFIPS

convened a

Sys-

tem

Certification

Committee

in

1972

February.

Certification

of

Programmers

and

Handbooks

of

Good Practice

The

committee

arrived

very

quickly

at

the

con-

clusion

that

there

seemed

to

be

no

authoritative

way

to

achieve

certification.

I proposed

that

a

series

of

books

of

good

practice

should

be

conceiv-

ed 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

com-

mittee

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 Na-

tional

Computer Conference

in

the

US.

The

session

had a

certain

distinction.

The

other

sessions

were,

by

design,

to

reflect

a

"vertical"

or

"end

use"

or-

ientation.

Here I

deliberately

chose,

in

planning

the

program,

to

take

a

further

step,

to

see

what

as-

pects

of computer systems

design

were

common

to

many

end

uses

for

the

specific

reason

that

they

were

di-

rectly

integrated

into

human

affairs.

The

panel

included

representatives

from

air

col-

lision

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

require-

ments:

-

Predictable

reliability

should be

astronomi-

cal.

-There

should

be

"bai

I-out"

capabi

li

ty

for

whenever

the

system

fails

unpredictably.

"Fire-Drills"

This

second

point

created

much

discussion;

Many

of

the

builders

of

complex

computer-controlled

sys-

tems 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

prac-

tice.

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

applica-

tions.

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:

-

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

op-

erator

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

en-

sure

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

es-

timate

is

that

this

now

amounts

to

$300

million

a

year,

and

will

reach

$2000

million

in

the

1980's!

18

Dick

Mills

of

the

First

National

City

Bank

says

that

the

bank has $8000

million

per

day

in

its

in-

terchange

"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

in-

vestment

by

society.

The

US

Government has imposed

certain

requirements

upon

the

manufacture

of

automobiles,

i.e.,

to

be

con-

structed

so

as

to

withstand

collision

of

X

km/h

with-

out

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

hard-

ware should

also

be

built

to

certain

standards

to

protect

these

rights.

We

are

certainly

going

to

have

to

build

computer

systems

with

facilities

for

confidentiality

and

se-

curity.

Although

there

is

no

law

on

this,

there

is

little

doubt

that

US

Government

users

will

be demand-

ing

these

features.

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

Commit-

tee

on

Social

Implications

of

Computers,

called

re-

cently

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

ombuds-

man

program has

solved

many

problems

of

bad compu-

ter

usage.

Power

to

Audit

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

ef-

forts

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

spec-

ifications,

narrative

documentation,

and

operating

instructions

must be

integral!

Using a

block-struc-

tured

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

pro-

fession.

Many

computer

societies

are

in

various

stages

of

using

codes

of

practice

and

certification

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

'."

I

"

it

ar

he

nts

on-

th-

on

d-

r

s

1d-

~r

Id

tl

j'I

..

l'

;

,I

"\

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.

Recommendations

As

custodians

of

the

power

source

we

have

many

responsibilities.

When

I planned

the

ACM

70 Con-

ference)it

was

as

a model

for

a

National

Computer

Year, which

could

possibly

be

followed

by

an

Inter-

national

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

un-

derstanding

of

computers,

their

role

and

po-

tential;

and

to

emphasize

the

computer

as

servant

by

more humanized use and

applica-

tions.

-

To

develop

strategies

for

the

best

future

use

of

computer systems

(technological,

so-

cial,

educational,

political,

and

legisla-

ti

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 compu-

ters,

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

in-

tegrated

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

in-

ternational

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

com-

puters

and

society

to

adjust

to

each

other

if

we

re-

ally

put

our minds

to

making

it

happen.

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

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.

o

Clark -Continued from

'page

13

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,"

Pen-

guin

Books,

Inc.,

New

York,

NY,

1943

7.

Dendy,

Larry

B.,

Ernst

von

Glasersfeld,

and

oth-

ers,

"Communication

--

Three-Way: Chimpanzee,

Man,

Computer,"

in

"Computers and Automation,"

July,

1973,

p.7

8.

Fromkin,

Victoria,

and Robert

Rodman,

"An

Intro-

duction

to

Language",

Holt,

Rinehart

and Winston,

Inc.,

New

York,

NY,

1974

9.

Lai

rd,

CharI

ton,

"The

Mi

racle

of

Language", Faw-

cett

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

Pro-

grammer'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 engineer-

ing sense,

for:

the

reliability

and social significance

of

pertinent

in-

put

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

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.

The

professional

information

engineer needs

to

relate his engi-

neering

to

the most

important

and most serious

problems

in

the

world

today:

war, nuclear weapons,

pollution,

the

population

explo-

sion, and

many

more.

19

IBM

Versus

AT&T:

Its Meaning To

The User And The Public

A.

G.

W.

Biddle

Executive Director

Computer Industry Association

Encino,

Calif.

91316

"Observers

now

see IBM's entry into satellite communications

as

a major threat to the computer industry. "

Based

on

an

address

to

the EDP/Telecommunications Conference

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

pur-

chasing

controlling

interest

in

CML,

an

authorized

domestic

satellite

carrier.

The

timing

of

the

an-

nouncement

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

un-

noticed

and

unreported.

It

largely

was.

Initial

reactions

were mixed. A number

of

ob-

servers

felt

that

AT&T

would

at

last

face

some

major

competition

and

thus

both

the

computer and

the

com-

munications

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

as-

sured

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

com-

puter

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,

Fair-

child,

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

of

your

consideration:

- 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.

In

the

past

year,

I have

testified

before

six

Congressional

committees as

to

condi-

tions

in

the

computer and communications

industries.

-

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

great-

er

detail.

AT&T,

Heavyweight Champion

In

one

corner

we

have

AT&T,

the

heavyweight cham-

pion

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

intercon-

nect

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

j'

,:!

'r

(,

, .~

t

s

t

w

i

f

i

IT

t

d

\\

9

b

I:

'Ii

C

j

at

e

y.

s

r-

r

t.

e

1-

/-

'

.....

its

total

monopoly power

over

all

facets

of

the

com-

munications

system.

It

has done

this

by

refusal

to

interconnect,

customer

intimidation,

and drawn

out

legal

proceedings.

At

the

moment,

it

is

losing.

AT&T,

through

its

teletype

subsidiary,

has

en-

croached upon IBM's

territory

with

the

data

speed

40

terminal.

It

has

also

started

marketing

OEM.

IBM,

The

Other

Heavyweight Champion

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,

es-

pecially

in

the

areas

of

peripheral

products,

termi-

nals,

minicomputers and

solid

state

devices.

In

1970,

IBM

lashed

out

at

the

independent

peri-

pheral

industry

--

the

Telex's

and Memorex's

--

for

it

feared

that

the

independents

might,

in

time,

be-

come

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

ap-

parent.

They

include:

-

F.S.

(Future

System):

The

fourth

generation

of

computers

will

employ

up

to

four

parallel

processors,

mass

storage

and,

in

all

proba-

bility,

will

be

field

expansible.

A

signifi-

cant

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 me-

tered,

with

customers charged

accordingly.

-Custom

Terminals:

A

family

of

unique,

ap-

plication-oriented

terminals

using

extensive

micro

coding,

new

IBM

de

facto

standard

pro-

tocols

and

mid-life

enhancements.

-Data

Security:

In

order

to

solve

the

data-

privacy,

security

problem,

automatic

encryp-

tion

will

probably

be

an

integral

part

of

each

element

of

the

system.

IBM

is

spending

$40

million

over 5

years

to

study

this

prob-

lem;

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

inte-

grated

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

opti-

mized

for

data

switching

but

also

has

all

of

the

features

required

for

an

integrated

com-

munication

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

com-

puters,

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

stor-

age

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

dis-

close

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

provid-

ing

a

solution

--

not

boxes,"

IBM

--

can as

it

has

many

times

in

the

past

--

freeze

out

any

significant

competition

that

might

de-

velop.

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

firm-

ly

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

pos-

sible;

scare

the

customer;

do

whatever

it

takes

--

but

take

it

all.

As

you know,

they

almost

succeeded

in

their

at-

tempts

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.

"No-No"

to

Banks

and

Wall

Street

Perhaps of even more

importance,

IBM

made

it

quite

clear

to

Wall

Street

and

the

banks

that

in-

vestment

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

begin-

ning

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

prob-

ably

one

of

the

best

managed, most

aggressive

com-

panies

in

the

world

today.

It

has

made

many

valu-

able

contributions

to

the

field

of

data

processing

and

to

our

industry.

Innovations: By

Other

Suppliers,

Not

IBM

It

has

not,

as

it

otherwise

would

like

you

to

be-

lieve,

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

avail-

able

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

de-

velopment of

standards

that

would

permit

healthy

competition

to

develop,

IBM

blocks

and

delays

at

22

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

cost-

ly.

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

tech-

niques:

-

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

in-

struments

for

15

years;

By

interconnecting

their

companies

with

Long

Lines

and

then

refusing

to

interconnect

non-

Bell

independent

companies,

it

killed

off

competition;

-

By

controlling

all

system

architecture

and

by

producing

all

of

the

equipment used

in

the

system,

it

was

able

to

prevent

the

de-

velopment

of

industry

standard

interfaces

and

thus

block

interconnection;

-

And

lastly,

by

manipulating

the

weak

and un-

sophisticated

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

inter-

esting

parallels

in

their

monopoly

tactics:

-

IBM

started

in

the

1920s

with

a

patent

mo-

nopoly

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.

-

Needless

to

say,

IBM

soon had

more

than

80%

of

the

installed

base

of

CPU's under

its

ab-

solute

control.

-

By

maintaining

a

separate

and

distinct

soft-

ware approach from

that

of

everyone

else

in

the

industry,

IBM

was

able

to

control

the

upward

migration

of

its

user

base.

By

con-

trolling

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

stan-

dard

interfaces

and

thus

block

interconnec-

tion.

-

And

lastly,

by

smothering

the

customer

with

tender

love

and

affection

--

lots

of

"free"

COMPUTERS

and

PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

p

a

f

u

a

n

p

s

t

s

1

f

o-

at

g

d

e

9

e

0%

v-

software

and

services

--

and by

keeping

the

DP

manager

out

of

trouble

with

his

boss,

the

user

remained

largely

unsophisticated

and

pas-

sive.

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

or-

ganization

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.

When

you

place

this

fact

in

context

with

IBM

sa-

tellites,

IBM

PABX's,

IBM

point

of

sale,

IBM

elec-

tronic

funds

transfer,

and

IBM

networks

--

the

impli-

cations

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."

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

blin-

ded by IBM's power and IBM's image

to

find

their

way

out

of

their

cages.

It

is

said

that

ours

is

a

very

competitive

indus-

try.

I ask you,

how

competitive

is

a

race

between

Secretariat,

five

mules and 60 lame ducks?

It's

not

even fun

to

watch.

And

that

leads

me

to

my

last

and

final

point:

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

Moun-

tain

can

--

through

sheer

muscle,

sophisticated

and

subtle

anti-competitive

practices

(many

hidden

under

the

guise

of

technology),

political

clout,

and monop-

oly

market

control

--

block

the

efforts

of

even

the

strongest

to

climb

the

hill?

What

happens

when

the

RCA's, General

Electrics,

Bendix's,

Honeywells,

Lit-

tons,

Philco

Fords,

Univacs and

Singers

finally

give

up

trying?

What

happens

when

the

Carters,

MCI's, Da-

trans,

Telecoms,

Storage

Technologies

and Stromberg

Carlsons

of

the

future

don't

even

get

to

try,

be-

cause

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

ex-

pensive

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

per-

formance. 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

in-

terface

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'

pro-

fits

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

compan-

ies

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

com-

pete

with

a

giant

monopoly

like

IBM?

Perhaps

of

greater

significance,

IBM

will

get

the

MCIs,

Da-

trans,

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

ac-

customed

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

inter-

faces,

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

man-

dates

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

pro-

cured

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

tol-

erated.

Nor

should

anti-competitive

and

exclusion-

ary

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

re-

maInIng 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

pro-

tective

umbrella

of

government

regulation.

They

have

not

felt

the

palsied

hand

of

bureaucratic

regu-

lation

on

their

shoulder

as

have

our

railroads,

our

airlines,

our

trucking

industry

and our

public

utili-

ties.

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

busi-

ness

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

re-

wards

of

a

grateful

society.

In

retailing,

the

consumer,

in

his

ultimate

wis-

dom,

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

con-

trol

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

eco-

nomic

principles.

When

business

is

good,

they

raise

the

prices

--

when

business

is

bad,

they

raise

pri-

ces

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

indus-

tries.

Crisis

The

situation

is

rapidly

approaching

crISIS

pro-

portions.

The

Arabs

are

very

conservative

inves-

tors

--

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

em-

ployer

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

be-

cause

everyone below

the

Fortune

Top

Fifty

dies

for

lack

of

capital,

and

the

wisdom

underlying

the

"pru-

dent

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?

Please

think

about

it.

8+01:)

+0(JV"*

o

·1·

El

\l

l:)

+ 8 \7 0 +

0+-\\-\7*0

08+*VO

o

O'V

\l

o~"Vx

J::)"

V 0

COMPUTERS

and

PEOPLE

for

January, 1975

If

Ims

Ir-

1-

lal

d

t

The

Teaching

of

Computer

Science:

Master

of

Science

Degree

J.

N.

Snyder

Head

of

Department

of

Computer Science

Univ.

of

Illinois

at

Urbana-Champaign

Urbana, III. 61801

Here

is

a

description

of

a

new

educational

program

being

offered

by

this

department.

We

believe

your

readers

may

be

interested.

Purpose

Computers

are

playing

an

increasingly

pervasive

role

in

our

society.

Therefore

every

educated

per-

son

should

have

some

understanding

of

the

principles

on

which

they

operate;

and

many

will

need

varying

degrees

of

skill

in

their

use.

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.

The

objective

of

this

new

curriculum

is

to

pre-

pare

competent

and

well-qualified

teachers

of

com-

puter

science

for

undergraduate

colleges,

junior

colleges,

vocational-technical

colleges,

and

high

schools.

Admission Requirements

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

consid-

ered

on

an

individual

basis.

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

pro-

gramming,

he

may

have

to

take

one

or

two

undergrad-

uate

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

.....................

.

unit

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

"Every

educated person

should

have some understanding

of

the principles on which computers

operate."

CS/SE

ED

357, Computer-

Assisted

Instruction

..............

1

unit

CS/~~TH

367, Computer

Application

to

Problems

in

Mathematics

........

1

unit

2)

Education

(2

units):

ED

PSYCH

311 and 312

1/2

unit

Educational

Policy

Studies

(Two

courses

selected

from

the

group 300-307)

................

1

unit

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

computer

science,

dependent

on

the

student's

background and

interests.

Teaching Project

In

addition

to

the

course

requirement,

each

student

under

the

supervision

of

his

faculty

ad-

viser

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

elec-

tives

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:

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.

25

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/multi-

processing

systems

is

discussed.

Prerequisite:

CS

201. 3

hours

or

1

unit.

CS

333

--

Computer System

Organization:

Computer system

analysis

and

design;

organ-

izational

dependence

on

computations

to

be

performed;

and speed and

cost

of

parts

and

of

overall

machines.

Prerequisite:

CS

201.

3

hours

or

1

unit.

CS/SE

ED

357

--

Computer

Applications

to

Problems

in

Mathematics:

This

course

discusses

many

problems which can

be

formulated

mathematically

and

lend

them-

selves to

computer

solution.

Problems

are

chosen from

the

following

major

areas:

applied

statistics,

in

particular

Monte

Carlo

tech-

niques

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.

For

further

information

on

financial

assistance,

the

Master

of

Science

in

the

Teaching

of

Computer

Science

degree,

or

other

programs

in

computer

sci-

ence

at

the

University

of

Illinois

at

Urbana-Cham-

paign,

please

write

to

me.

0

Who's Who

in

Computers

and Data Processing

6th

Cumulative Edition, scheduled for

1975

Send us your

entry,

saying:

1. Your

name

/

2.

Home

address

/

3.

Your

organization

/

4.

Its

address

/ 5. Your

title

/

6.

Your main

interests

/

7.

Your

year

of

birth

/

8.

Your

education

and

degrees

/

9.

The

year

you

entered

the

computer

field

/ 10. Your

present

occupation

/ 11. Your

publications,

honors,

memberships, and

other

distinctions.

For

the

full

entry

form,

see

inside

the

front

cover

(page 2)

in

the

November 1974

issue.

26

Send

to:

Who's

Who

Editor,

Who's

Who

in

Com-

puters

and Data

Processing,

RFD

I,

North

Grosven-

ordale,

Conn. 06255.

THE

20th

ANNUAL

EDITION

OF

THE

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

is

included

in

the

full annual subscription

(13 issues)

to

Computers

and

People: U.S.A.,

$23.50;

Canada,

$24.50;

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elsewhere, Swiss

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RETURNABLE

IN

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, ( Yes, please send me ( ) copy(ies)

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Computer

I

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I enclose: U.S.A.

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Elsewhere

______

--.-_

I

My

name

and

address

are

attached.

I'

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January. 1975

-~

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

Sep-

tember

8,

1974. Thus

the

latest

act

in

a drama

that

began

in

1960,

unfolded.

Many

skeptical

U.S.

citi-

zens 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

par-

don

on

grounds

of

poor

Nixon

health

and

family

con-

siderations.

The

Ford

explanations

of

fears

for

Nixon's

health

didn't

seem

to

convince

very

many

news

media

people

who

saw

a seemingly

robust

ex-

president

in

San

Clemente.\2/

The pardon seemed

to

most Americans and

news

edi-

tors,

a

gross

error

in

judgment and a

total

miscar-

riage

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 pow-

er."

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

lead-

ing

up

to

the

pardon,

must

begin

with

the

relation-

ship

through

the

years

between Gerald Ford and

Rich-

ard

Nixon; and

it

must go back

to

1960,

the

year

Mr.

Nixon

planned

the

overthrow

of

Castro's

Cuba.

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

anti-

Communist

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

pur-

posefully

lied

to

the

American

people

about

U.S.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE

for

January, 1975

plans

for

an

invasion.\S/

When

he

narrowly

lost

to

Kennedy,

it

created

a deep

wound

and

he

apparently

spent

much

of

the

years

planning

what

might be

called

revenge.

During

the

1960

to

1963

period

Nixon became

well

acquainted

with

a number

of

violent-tempered

or

cold-

hearted

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/

Wheth-

er

Nixon

was

directly

involved

in

the

Cabal's

plan-

ning

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

im-

mediately

before

Kennedy

was

killed.

(See

the

sec-

tion

below

on

evidence)\ll/

At

any

rate,

whether

Nixon

was

or

was

not

direct-

ly

involved

in

planning

the

assassination

of

Presi-

dent

John F. Kennedy does

not

have

to

be

settled

here,

because

Nixon

WAS

directly

involved

in

cover-

ing

up

the

truth

about

who

did

the

deed.

Recently

revealed

evidence

from

the

Nixon-Haldeman

tapes

in-

dicates

that

Nixon

knew

the

truth

about

the

assassi-

nation

when

he

suggested

Gerald Ford

for

the

Warren

Commission.\12/

Ford

and

Nixon

The

hypothesis

then

continues

with

the

close

per-

sonal

friendship

of

Ford and Nixon

in

their

days

together

in

the

Congress,

when

both

were

strong,

ultra-conservative,

"red

white

and

blue,"

anti-

Communist,

"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

fool-

ed 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

real-

ly

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

--

Por-

trait

of

The

Assassin".

This,

coming from

the

chair-

man

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

assassina-

tion.

This

inner

circle

widened,

of

necessity,

when

Robert Kennedy

was

killed,

and Nixon became

Presi-

dent.

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

investi-

gation

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

cir-

cle

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

con-

servative

vote.

Again,

the

inner

circle

grew, and

the

debts

grew. E.

Howard

Hunt and

Charles

Colson,

along

with

Tony

Ulazawicz, Donald

Segretti

and

oth-

ers,

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

sec-

tion

on

evidence)

The

Watergate Crisis

Now

arrives

the

Watergate

crisis.

Nixon

is

trap-

ped

by

his

own

tapes.

The

hypothesis

continues

that

discussions

with

Haldeman,

Mitchell

and

others

men-

tion

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

reveal-

ing

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

to-

gether

by

their

mutual

cover-up

of

the

assassina-

tions,

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

perform-

ance

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

as-

sassinations

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,

Kissin-

ger,

Haldeman, Ehrlichman.,

the

Warren Commission,

Hunt, Helms,

Shaw

and anyone

else

in

the

inner

cir-

cle

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

Ja-

worski

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

d

n-

t

r

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.

Jaworski

could

be a problem, even though he

help-

ed

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

pay-

ing

him

a

lot

of

money.\20/

Helms

can be

counted

on.

Kissinger

may

have been a problem,

but

he

agreed

fi-

nally.

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

Com-

mission,

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

impor-

tant

ambassadorship.

John

J.

McCloy

is

too

old

to

worry

about,

and

of

course

Ford

is

O.K.

That

leaves

Colson,

Mitchell,

Haldeman, and

Ehr-

lichman,

plus

some

other

small

fry.

The

Nixon-Ford

strategy

as

planned

with

these

men,

must have

in-

volved

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 Gar-

rison.)

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

Clar-

ence

Kelly

know

because

of

their

access

to

the

re-

cords;

so

they

must have

agreed

to

cover-up

continu-

ance.

Of

extreme

importance

is

Saxbe's

and

Kelly's

con-

trol

of

the

new

trial

and

hearing

coming

up

for

Sir-

han

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. What-

ever

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

referen-

ces.

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

scien-

tific

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

analy-

si

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

in-

vasion

plans

1960. Source: "Compulsive

Spy,"

Tad

Szulc,

Viking

Press,

1974

2.

Nixon

was

in

contact

with

Hunt, and

others

dur-

ing

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

ad-

mission

about

the

Bay

of

Pigs

during

his

TV

de-

bates

with

Kennedy

in

1960.

Source:

"Six

Cri-

ses"

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

Water-

gate

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

rea-

son

for

his

trip.

lie

held

two

press

conferences

on

the

two

days

before

the

assassination

subtly

attacking

both

Kennedy and Johnson and

emphasiz-

ing

the

Democratic

political

problems

in

Texas.

Source: Warren Commission

Exhibits

--

Vol. XXII,

Pages 941-943

29

10. Research

indicates

that

Nixon

either

knew

in

ad-

vance about

the

Cabal's

plans,

or

learned

about

them soon

after

the

assassination.

Source:

Trow-

bridge

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

Ju-

diciary

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

--

Por-

trait

of

The

Assassin"

14. Ford

purposefully

covered

up

the

conspiracy

of

the

Cabal

in

the

JFK

assassination

and

also

cov-

ered

up

the

fact

that

Oswald

was

a

paid

informer

for

the

FBI.

He

did

this

by

dismissing

the

sub-

ject

in

his

book

as

worthless

rumor and by

keep-

ing

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

--

Declas-

sification

of

Relevant

Documents from

the

Nation-

al

Archives;

R.

E. Sprague

--

Computers & Auto-

mation,

October,

1971'

15. Ford

continued

the

cover-up

of

his

assassination

cover-up

when

he

was

questioned

before

being

con-

firmed 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

be-

cause

his

book used

classified

documents

about

Oswald's

FBI

informer

status.

He

lied

when

he

said

that

the

book

was

titled,

"Lee Harvey Os-

wald

--

Portrait

of

an

Assassin."

This

was

sig-

nificant

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

represen-

ted

in

liaison

with

the

Warren Commission. _

He

also

stopped

the

critical

testimony

of

Jack

Ruby

when

he

was

testifying

before

the

Warren

Commis-

sion,

and

diverted

attention

away

from Ruby's

intent

to

reveal

the

conspiracy

to

kill

both

Kennedy and Oswald.

Sources:

Dr.

Tuteur,

psy-

chiatrist

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

Com-

mittee"

17.

Nixon became

President

in

1968

only

because

Rdb-

ert

Kennedy

was

killed

by

a

conspiracy,

involv-

ing

the

Cabal and

the

CIA.

Nixon

was

well

aware

of

the

conspiracy

whether

or

not

he approved of

it

in

advance.

Sources:

Investigation

by

Wil-

30

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

cov-

ering

up

the

RFK

murder

conspiracy.

They

classi-

fied

the

evidence

Top

Secret

and murdered

sev-

eral

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

plumb-

ers

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

Turn-

er,

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

Conspir-

acy,"

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

gamb-

ling

case.

Source:

"The Framing of Jim

Garri-

son,"

Richard

E.

Sprague, Computers & Automation,

December, 1973.

22. Nixon and Haldeman

discussed

the

assassination

of John Kennedy,

the

conspiracy,

Hunt's

involve-

ment,

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

"Na-

tional

Security."

Source:

Tape

transcript

--

Nixon and Haldeman

--

June 23, 1972.

The

major-

ity

of

the

tape

was

transcribed

as

being

unin-

telligible.

But Nixon mentions Hunt

possibly

revealing

"Hanky Panky,"

that

we

were not

in-

volved

in

OURSELVES.

He

was

referring

to

Halde-

man,

Nixon and Co.

All

of

the

actions

so

far

revealed

in

Watergate

would

not

fit

that

descrip-

tion.

The

assassinations

of

JFK,

RFK,

and Wal-

lace

were

undoubtedly

what Nixon

was

talking

a-

bout.

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

Demo-

cratic

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

"unintelli-

gible"

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

criti-

cal

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

assassi-

nation

material

under wraps even

after

his

resig-

nation.

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

Sen-

ate

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 news-

letter,

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

Vic-

tor

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

possi-

bly

killed

by

the

Cabal.

Boggs'

airplane

dis-

appeared

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.

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.

Haldeman

erased

18-1/2

minutes

of

a

taped

dis-

cussion

with

Nixon. This

tape

undoubtedly

con-

tained

"National

Security"

matters.

The

fact

that

Haldeman

did

the

erasing

can

easily

be

de-

termined

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.

Halde-

man

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

truth-

fully

because

the

"deal"

was

made

BEFORE

he

be-

came

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,

De-

cember. 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

pa-

pers

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 &

War-

ren

Commission

14. Trowbridge Ford

--

Artiale

on

Gerald

Ford & War-

ren

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"

--

Un-

published

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,

Pa-

ges

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

31

GAMES

AND

PUZZLES

for

Nimble

Minds

and

Computers

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

SIXWORDO

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

re-

state 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.

SIXWORDO PUZZLE

751

Within

anyone

context, the problem

of

designating

ideas

is

relatively easy. Most ideas are tagged with single-

meaning 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.)

MAXIMDIJ

In this kind

of

p~zzle,

a maxim (common saying, prov-

erb, some good advice, etc.) using 14

or

fewer different

letters

is

enciphered (using a simple substitution cipher) in-

to

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

Neil Macdonald

Assistant Editor

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. '

NUMBLES

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 repre-

sented

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) mis-

spellings, or

is

otherwise irregular, to discourage cryptana-

lytic methods

of

deciphering.

NAYMANDIJ

NUMBLE

751

THE

+ P 0 0 R

R T H I

+

FEE

D

E 0 P

64438 124

In

this kind

of

puzzle an array

of

random

or

pseudoran-

dom

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

-

mation

~

]

~]

~

]

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.)

NA YMANDIJ

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.

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

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.

GIZZMO

751

While

we

believe

that

there are reasonable limits

to

what the HONTEMS

of

FLEENS should be in their en-

tirety 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 uniform-

ly applicable

to

any and all FLEENS. Many HONTEMS

can improve FLEENS; certain contrasting HONTEMS in

the same FLEEN can make the FLEEN

both

more inter-

esting 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.

How-

ever,

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.

6 7 8 8 1 0 0 0 9 0 0 4 3 6 4 6 4 2 9

164

0 6 0 4

604

0

886

8 0 4 8 8 6 6 I

2 4 8 3

840

6 9

741

444

901

5 8

5 4 9 5 2 7 0 3 2 2 7 3 6 8 8 2

267

3

6 7 3 8 7

554

7 7 3 4

789

9 8 7 6 0

9 1 3 5 5 9 1

001

454

869

2 5 7 0

2 9 3

601

154

1 8 1 6 8

232

399

3 7 9 7 3

664

259

1

000

334

8 8

2 9 9 7 6 1 4 8 8 5 4

957

7 2

255

7

2 2 6 0 4 9 5

566

1

084

4 8 7

946

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.

Each

article

of

school equipment

is

now

stenciled

in

code.

The

vandalism

has been

computerized

with

each

in-

cident

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

in-

stalled

in

schools

where

vandalism

occurs

most

fre-

quently.

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

education-

al,

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

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

in-

formation

provided

by

a computer has been developed

in

Melbourne,

Australia.

Mr.

Tony

Brown, 29, a

blind

electrical

engineer-

ing

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

com-

puter

operators

to

give

instructions

to

and

receive

information

from a computer.

The

machine

consists

of

a

standard

teletype

ter-

minal

with

keyboard and

print-out

facilities,

a

braille

typewriter

which

has

been

converted

to

auto-

matic

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

con-

junction

with

the

computer

centre's

director,

Dr.

Cli

ff

Bellamy.

It

was

financed

by

a $A7500

grant

from

the

Wil-

liam

Buckland

Foundation.

Mr.

Brown,

who

has been

blind

since

he

was

18,

said

that

other

systems

of

braille

computer

print-

outs

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

compu-

ter

centre

combines

great

flexibility

with

high

qual-

ity

of

output.

The

prototype

model

will

undergo

some

refinement

and

then

it

will

be

tested

by

other

blind

computer

programmers and

with

other

computers.

THREE COMMUNITIES IN MASSACHUSETTS

MAKE

SAVINGS

WITH COMPUTERIZED SCHOOL-BUS ROUTES

Massachusetts

school

transportation

costs,

which

last

year

topped $55

million,

have been

forced

sharp-

ly

upward

this

year

by

inflationary

pressures

--

such

as

higher

vehicle

cost~

increased

oil

prices

and

ris-

ing

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

budg-

ets

in

Braintree,

Brockton and

Taunton.

School

officials

in

those

communities

hired

con-

sultants

to

survey

local

traffic

patterns,

locations

of

students'

homes

and

school

destinations,

then

de-

veloped

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

com-

petition

among

four

bus companies

for

a

share

of

the

contract.

Each

route

was

bid

separately.

Long

said

the

consultants

proposed

several

alter-

nate

busing

programs

for

Brockton.

"We

decided

not

to

adopt

staggered

school

closing

hours,"

Long

said,

"but

wi

th more

efficient

scheduling

we

cut

our

trans-

portation

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

re-

vamped

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

su-

pervision

if

they

arrive

at

school

20 minutes

or

more

before

classes

begin.

As

more

children

are

assigned

to

each

bus,

dis~

ciplinary

problems

may

increase,

and

safety

analysts

may

become concerned

about

standees.

"If

you're

going

to

save

this

much

money, some-

thing

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.

COMPUTERS

and

PEOPLE

for

January, 1975

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.; Program-

med

Transportation

of

Penfield,

N.Y.; Westinghouse

Learning

Corp.,

of

Waltham; and

Educational

Coordi-

nates,

of

Princeton,

N.J.

Leo P. Turo,

director

of

the

state

Board

of

Educa-

tion's

school

management

services,

is

skeptical

about

paying

private

consultants

for

bus

scheduling.

Turo

said

his

office

assists

public

schools

with

scheduling,

contracts,

safety

and

other

busing

prob-

lems

--

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

restruc-

ture

bus

routes.

Some

school

officials

reject

use

of

consultants,

contending

that

local

school

bus

coordinators

know

their

community and

its

transportation

problems

bet-

ter

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

for-

mat

is

desired

--

adult

rock,

beautiful

music,

top-

40,

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

success-

ful

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

af-

ter

another

automatically.

At

some

stations,

even

the

commercials

are

taped

beforehand.

Then

all

a

station

has

to

do

is

to

key-

punch

an

order

to

the

computer

telling

it

when

to

use

a

certain

commercial.

It's

done

without

a

sin-

gle

human

being

ever

having

to

touch

the

tape.

One

general

manager

stressed

cost

as

a major

ad-

vantage

of

the

automated

systems.

"One

or

two

an-

nouncers

to

tape

your

commercials,

a

couple

of

people

to

be

with

the

computer

24

hours

a

day,

and

there's

your

broadcasting

staff."

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."

35

The

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edition

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DATA

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