Man and the Computer

338 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE encyclopedic, teaching, and editing functions. He considers the com­ puter an active instrument of scientific learning comparable with the microscope, the telescope, and the invention of writing. Then he turns to a sharp-tongued, amusing, perceptive, valid, overdue critique of the education professions. Administrative people and technology enthusi­ asts envisioning computers as jocular page turners receive special at­ tention. Oettinger is, in short, for technology and computers, except in the hands of garbage men—an acceptable, not to say impregnable, position, however unoriginal. His targets seem hardly worth the time of a rifle­ man of such skill and precaution. What is left of them are too softened up for any dangerous ricocheting, and the best snipers in charge of the defense were wiped out in the prior skirmishes. The most worthy reviews of Run, Computer, Run were published before the book came out {Harvard. Educational Review 38(4) [1968]: 718, 724, 730, 735, 739, 747). As they point out, there are in this book an excellent discussion of the meaning of individualization in organized education, a masterful delineation of the essential properties of usable educational technological devices, and a sound appreciation of the com­ puter’s eventual educational promise. There are also some fine fun pas­ sages about the “Hawaiian rain dances” executed by hapless educators bemused with empty aims, windy philosophies, total systems analysis, scientism, resplendent conferences dedicated to the mysteries of edu­ cational innovation, and absurd mathematical formulations of nonquantitative curricular concepts. The Oettinger conclusion about education advocates the fair trial of a plurality of innovating approaches, public and private, to improve teaching-learning processes in a competitive, diverse mix—and never mind the expense. This conclusion has the splendid inconclusiveness frequently exhibited by good critics who feel bound to offer some kind of Phoenix arising from the ruins they have wrought. John Barden* Man and the Computer: Technology as an Agent of Social Change. By John Diebold. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1969. Pp. xi-j157 . $5.95. John Diebold, an engineer and economist by training, heads the Die­ bold Group, a management consulting firm. His short book consists of a collection of addresses given before management groups and college commencement audiences plus an article published earlier in Foreign Affairs. While members of the general public may gain some useful in­ formation and insights (and some false impressions as well) from read­ ing Man and the Computer, specialists in the relationship of technology * Dr. Barden is a staff writer for science and technology and a member of the Jennings Computing Center of Case Western Reserve University. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 339 and culture or the study of the future will learn little from the sub­ stance of Diebold’s remarks. But they can learn a good deal indirectly, for the book is a good example of how an articulate, well-informed, and forward-looking member of the business elite views the awesome new problems which technology poses for human society. Diebold expresses concern about the long-range implications of the contemporary technological revolution—the creation of machines which rival and surpass man in intelligence, the problems of control of both the quantity and quality of the human population, man-machine sym­ biosis, the shock to man’s self-image if there should be a confrontation with extraterrestrial intelligences (possibly using the computer as a means of communication), and, most basic, man’s burgeoning ability to control the course of his own evolution. But his responses to these challenges are couched in the most general and platitudinous of terms. His primary focus is on the more short-run implications of technologi­ cal change, particularly in the field of computer technology, and here his predictions and evaluations stem from a private profit-oriented boosterism. The longest single chapter of the book is devoted to the impact of technology upon education. Diebold foresees an overwhelming increase in the use of the computer as a teaching tool, though he admits the American market has yet to prove as lucrative as some firms had hoped, especially in view of the fact that throughout the world “well over half a billion people must be taught

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