248
JACK LUDWIG
Having softened us up Sir Leon moves to new ground: most people
think of automation as an industrial matter, or, if more, as high-speed
calculation important in mathematics, physics, astrophysics, accounting,
etc.
Automation
is
really an umbrella term for a complex of related
systems. It includes, for instance, data processing and the scan–
ning of information with alarm systems. It includes computa–
tion for specific purposes, for accountancy, for switching of
information, for all kinds of rewarding, for observing, record–
ing and controlling every conceivable kind of activity-indus–
trial, commercial, governmental and social. . . . It is now pos–
sible
to
envisage personal computers, small enough to be taken
around in one's car, or even in one's pocket. They could
be
plugged into a national computer grid, to provide individual
enquirers with almost unlimited information.
Thinking of the boon to business, Sir Leon ignores completely the threat
to
privacy and individual freedom. In this country we are rapidly
developing a number index for each individual-social security, bank
interest identification, stock dividend identification, student IBM or data
processing code numbers-which enter a permanent "bank" of informa–
tion available to far too many scanners. The development of new
miniaturized computers, with a storing capacity of not 10
10
or 10
12
but
1()23,
in bits offers staggering p.ossibilities. Instant census might
be
a
planner's dream, but it is also a civil liberty nightmare. Instant retrieval
is a fine vision for a post-book computerized library system, but not
for the individual who thinks his privacy a constitutional guarantee.
From Bagrit's point of view the loosing of information over the land is
a risk or a discomfort one must accept as part of the revolution, because
what he anticipates is in effect baroque, total, a unity.
I italicize because what this book establishes is Sir Leon's ultimate
vision. He knows his goal-the good society, say. He knows his re–
sources-men and machines. But men have not yet assumed the proper
form for easy programming. A multipurpose crash program is obviously
in order.
We must somehow
induce
industrial concerns to adopt these
new techniques quickly and intelligently, and we must
make
sure
that our universities, our technical colleges and our schools
are
mobilized
to
produce
the people with the background, the
training and the
inclination
which is necessary to bring this
about. We must also
see to it
that the
correct
political decisions
are taken to make it easier . . . to realize these aims.... We
shall have to
produce
men and women who are able
to
under-
