Computers and People

Abstract

It is only to be expected that the rise to prominence of the computer over the last four decades has had some effect on the lives of people in our society. That effect has, in the experience of the majority, been most evident in changed patterns of employment; many people, I think, would at the moment be hard pressed to name one other significant effect. This is partly because the breakout of computers from their business use is only just under way, so that the full effects, potentially, of computers as domestic machines like a television or the car are not yet realised. In the next chapter we look forward to these developments; in this chapter we examine the current situation in respect of:

• employment;

• education;

• civil rights and civil liberties;

• leisure.