Southeastern Massachusetts University - Scrimshaw Yearbook (North Dartmouth, MA)

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The truth, the central stupendous truth, about developed countries today is that they can have-in anything but the shor'test run-the kind and scale of resources they decide to have .... It is no longer resources that limit decwons. It is the decision that makes the resources. This is the fundamental revolutionary change-perhaps the most revolutionary mankind has ever known. Third, the drive to eliminate the human mind from repetitive activities results from the fact that the computer rs a far more efficient worker than already we know that the production worker can be replaced by the cybernated system, that the. computer controls inventory more effectively than the manager, that the computer handles bank accounts far more cheaply than the clerk. These however, are primitive developments: in the near future we will see that the computer can take over any structured task, that is to say, any task where the decrion-making rules can be set out ui advance. Thus for example, the computer will take over the process of granting most types ofbank loan, the analysis of stock portfolios and the process of odd-lot trading. on Wall Street. The last application is perhaps particularly noteworthy, for it will replace a group of people whose median income is aroundS50,000 a year. Fourth, the umherent organizational drive of the computer withuz a cybemetics system: The setting up of computer systems is a response to a need to increase economic efficiency or to rationalize operations, but as computer systems become fully operative, a drive emerges toward the reorganization, for purposes of compatability, of interacting systems and institutions. The greater the number of areas of computer application, the greater the number of areas of computer application, the greater the force -behind There is now quite clearly a trend toward the emergence of a total computer system organized for maximum efficiency in tems of immediate tasks. Changes resulting from these four drives have already begun. The transformation taking place around us should, therefore, not be regarded as a process involving the occurrences of random, isolated non-predictable events, but rather be urgently studied to determine what trends are developing. In addition, we must always keep in mind that change 'brought about in one part of the system will be accompanied by other changes, . '21 UN.. I 4 3:11 . 6 ' N ,fyfy V -,,Z?.vv.?LQ,,'f:s., . r M 'L 1 x ,V if., .L W., 'fr , 5.31 hi its

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Q ,ef 1 5 .. .,-. ,fl 4 . my . Tse' .ff ' IM? if-sf-ff -'f- -v Q. v 7.11,-. .z eqafm-v-1. ' . ff ' .9 , .' ff, ruff.. 5--5-w.:2 . -,asf , ,,, , ff 1--1' qi ' ' H, ,, ,.,: ,. , .... . .,,,,. f-gf,.-- ' E mv. QW' .:,-,:..,-euan,-q..f,g,-,,',,,--fA,f sgf5.g',-.'f7f'-sf-1'.H Q' gn, 1 gi.: - .ln - .- 4 , ,.-, ,015-f .La-J. .W . ,.1., .f . . . . 4. f '- wdeedfr .1 the 81191110 WY' 'O md fn the 'QW mdummhge ' , e'ifi-ifncfevinalv dlfilf-'Ulf J - .1 ' ,Foufj-fuigdamen-tal-gdrives' arise from the gpplibationfioticybemeticsvinl the form of computeiff r the . toward destructive power, the drive toward -unlimited productive power, the to' 'eliminate the human mind from ,MW 5 ,,,,f,,i,,,,' and th, ,-,,,,,,,,,, drive of the computer within acybernetics system. I shall first examine the components of these drives, then indicate the end results of these drives if we fail to change the present socioeconomic system, and finally, I will set. . out some of the mzhimtun steps required to enable us to use these drives to achieve our fundamental goals. First, the drive toward unlimited destructive power results from the combination of nuclear energy with the control and communication system of the computer and -the activities of those involved in research and development. It is now generally accepted that there are already sufficient nuclear explosives, as well as bacteriological and chemical weapons, to destroy civilization, if not all life Second, the drive toward unlimited productive power also results from the combination of effectively unlimited energy with 'the control and communication system of the computer and the activities of those involved in researchnd development. While this drive toward unlimited productive power is still denied by the conventional economist, it is fully accepted by those most closely associated with prod uction, the manufacturers and the farmer. American firms now expand their production, both within America and abroad, just as fast as they are able to increase profitable sales. There is no longer any effective limit to our productive abilities: we have passed beyond the dismal science of traditional economics. U Thant, Secretary General of the United Nations has expressed this reality in the following words' i S PPLY DEM l . 'lu- 1 1 fr ,E e , 5 ,K Q 'E x

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fl both predictable and unpredictable, in many parts of the existing socioeconomic system and culture. It is now clear that the impact ofthe computer is destroying the industrial-age balance between the economy and the society. We continue, however, to assume that after a period of apparent disorganization, a new favorable socioeconomic balance will become evident, we have further assumed that JT it becomes clear that a satisfactory balance is not emerging, we will be able to intervene at the last moment ot correct unfavorable trends. These kinds of assumptions are analogous to 'the pre-cybernetics industrial-age economic theories of laissez-faire and, later of pre-crisis intervention in the economy. But these theories were based on the imposibility of prediction and resulted in the establishment of a polity of remedial, not preventative, action. Today, the avialability of the computer enables us to spot trends long before they would otherwise be visible, to carry out the necessary discussion and to prepare any required programs before the need for action develops. We can thus use these systems to control their own effects. Using information provided by computer systems, we can speed up the observation-discussion-action process so that we can keep up with the developments in our own technology So long as we preserve our present socioeconomic system, internal economic stability is only possible if the amount poeple and institutions are willing and able to buy rises a fast as the amount that we are able to produce. It is necessary that effective demand keep up with potential supply. This necessity follows from the fact that the viability of our present scarcity socioeconomic system is based on a very simple relationship: it is assumed that it is possible for the overwhelming - proportion of those seeking jobs to find them and that the income received from these jobs will enable the job-holder to act as an adequate consumer. The successful functioning of the present socioeconomic system is therefore completely dependent on an ability to provide enough jobs to go round. a continuing failure to achieve this invalidates our present mechanism for income distribution, which operates only so long as scarcity persists. So long as the present socioeconomic system is not changed, abundance is a ,cancer and the various parts of the system must continue to do their best to inhibit its growth.