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21. Computer Lib

/Dream Machines

1974

Any nitwit can understand computers, and many do.

Unfortunately, due to ridiculous historical circumstances,

computers have been made a mystery to most of the world.

And this situation does not seem to be improving. You hear

more and more about computers, but to most people it’s just

one big blur. The people who know about computers often

seem unwilling to explain things or answer your questions.

Stereotyped notions develop about computers operating in

fixed ways—and so confusion increases. The chasm between

laymen and computer people widens fast and dangerously.

This book is a measure of desperation, so serious and

abysmal is the public sense of confusion and ignorance.

Anything with buttons or lights can be palmed off on the

laymen as a computer. There are so many different things,

and their differences are so important; yet to the lay public

they are lumped together as “computer stuff,” indistinct and

beyond understanding or criticism. It’s as if people couldn’t

tell apart camera from exposure meter or tripod, or car from

truck or tollbooth. This book is therefore devoted to the

premise that 

EVERYBODY SHOULD 

UNDERSTAND COMPUTERS.

It is intended to fill a crying need. Lots of everyday people

have asked me where they can learn about computers, and I

have had to say nowhere. Most of what is written about

computers for the layman is either unreadable or silly. (Some

exceptions are listed nearby [on pp. 6–7 of the first edition,

not reprinted here]; you can go to them instead of this if you

want.) But virtually nowhere is the big picture simply enough

explained. Nowhere can one get a simple, soup-to-nuts

overview of what computers are really about, without

technical or mathematical mumbo-jumbo, complicated

examples, or talking down. This book is an attempt.

(And nowhere have I seen a simple book explaining to the

layman the fabulous wonderland of computer graphics

which awaits us all, a matter which means a great deal to me

personally, as well as a lot to all of us in general. That’s

discussed on the flip side.)

Computers are simply a necessary and enjoyable part of

life, like food and books. Computers are not everything, they

are just an aspect of everything, and not to know this is

computer illiteracy, a silly and dangerous ignorance.

Computers are as easy to understand as cameras. I have

tried to make this book like a photography magazine—

breezy, forceful and as vivid as possible. This book will

explain how to tell apples from oranges and which way is up.

If you want to make cider, or help get things right side up,

you will have to go on from here.

I am not a skillful programmer, hands-on person or

eminent professional; I am just a computer fan, computer

fanatic if you will. But if Dr. David Reuben can write about

sex I can certainly write about computers. I have written this

like a letter to a nephew, chatty and personal. This is perhaps

less boring for the reader, and certainly less boring for the

writer, who is doing this in a hurry. Like a photography

magazine, it throws at you some rudiments in a merry

setting. Other things are thrown in so you’ll get the sound of

them, even if the details are elusive. (We learn most everyday

things by beginning with vague impressions, but somehow

encouraging these is us not usually felt to be respectable.)

What I have chosen for inclusion here has been arbitrary,

based on what might amuse and give quick insight. Any

bright highschool kid, or anyone else who can stumble

through the details of a photography magazine, should be

able to understand this book, or get the main ideas. This will

not make you a programmer or a computer person, though it

may help you talk that talk, and perhaps make you feel more

comfortable (or at least able to cope) when new machines

encroach on your life. If you can get a chance to learn

programming it’s an awfully good experience for anybody

above fourth grade. But the main idea of this book is to help

you tell apples from oranges, and which way is up. I hope you

do go on from here, and have made a few suggestions.

I am “publishing” this book myself, in this first draft form,

to test its viability, to see how mad the computer people get,

and to see if there is as much hunger to understand

computers, among all you Folks Out There, as I think. I will

be interested to receive corrections and suggestions for

subsequent editions, if any. (The computer field is its own

exploding universe, so I’ll worry about up-to-dateness at

that time.)

303

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the

NEWMEDIA

READER

21. Computer Lib

/Dream Machines

304

Summary of This Book

Man has created the myth of “the computer” in his own

image, or one of them: cold, immaculate, sterile, “scientific,”

oppressive.

Some people flee this image. Others, drawn toward it,

have joined the cold-sterile-oppressive cult, and propagate it

like a faith. Many are still about this mischief, making people

do things rigidly and saying it is the computer’s fault.

Still others see computers for what they really are:

versatile gizmos which may be turned to any purpose, in any

style. And so a wealth of new styles and human purposes are

being proposed and tried, each proponent propounding his

own dream in his own very personal way.

This book presents a panoply of things

and dreams. Perhaps some will appeal to

the reader . . .

The Computer Priesthood

Knowledge is power and so it tends to be

hoarded. Experts in any field rarely want

people to understand what they do, and

generally enjoy putting people down.

Thus if we say that the use of computers

is dominated by a priesthood, people who

spatter you with unintelligible answers and

seem unwilling to give you straight ones, it

is not that they are different in this respect

from any other profession. Doctors,

lawyers and construction engineers are the same way.

But computers are very special, and we have to deal with

them everywhere, and this effectively gives the computer

priesthood a stranglehold on the operation of all large

organizations, of government bureaux, and everything else

that they run. Members of Congress are now complaining

about control of information by the computer people, that

they cannot get the information even though it’s on

computers. Next to this it seems a small matter that in

ordinary companies “untrained” personnel can’t get straight

questions answered by computer people; but it’s the same

phenomenon.

It is imperative for many reasons that the appalling gap

between public and computer insider be closed. As the

saying goes, war is too important to be left to the generals.

Guardianship of the computer can no longer be left to a

priesthood. I see this as just one example of the creeping evil

of Professionalism,* the control of aspects of society by

cliques of insiders. There may be some chance, though, that

Professionalism can be turned around. Doctors, for example,

are being told that they no longer own people’s bodies.** And

this book may suggest to some computer professionals that

their position should not be as sacrosanct as they have

thought, either.

This is not to say that computer people are trying to louse

everybody up on purpose. Like anyone trying to do a

complex job as he sees fit, they don’t want to be bothered

with idle questions and complaints. Indeed, probably any

group of insiders would have hoarded computers just as

much. If the computer had evolved from the

telegraph (which it just might have), perhaps

the librarians would have hoarded it conceptu-

ally as much as the math and engineering

people have. But things have gone too far.

People have legitimate complaints about the

way computers are used, and legitimate ideas

for ways they should be used, which should no

longer be shunted aside.

In no way do I mean to condemn computer

people in general. (Only the ones who don’t

want you to know what’s going on.) The field

is full of fine, imaginative people. Indeed, the

number of creative and brilliant people known

within the field for their clever and creative

contributions is considerable. They deserve to be known as

widely as, say, good photographers or writers.

*This is a side point. I see Professionalism as a spreading disease

of the present-day world, a sort of poly-oligarchy by which various

groups (subway conductors, social workers, bricklayers) can bring

things to a halt if their particular new increased demands are not

met. (Meanwhile, the irrelevance of each profession increases, in

proportion to its increasing rigidity.) Such lucky groups demand

more in each go-round—but meantime, the number who are

permanently unemployed grows and grows.

**Ellen Frankfort, Vaginal Politics. Quadrangle Books.

Boston Women’s Health Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Simon &

Schuster.

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