The Rights and Wrongs of Computing

Abstract

This is a complex subject. In the first place the arguments involve computers, but are not wholly about them. Some of the major issues are more correctly seen as about communication networks. Other topics have more diffuse origins, but are conveniently hung on to the peg of computing. Still more are based on the growth of computing as a symptom rather than a cause of social and political developments. The subject is also one which has a history of provoking strongly polarised views, from the enthusiast galloping along with the torrent of technological progress (for example, C. Evans, 1979) to the pessimist who sees in computing all the signs of social decay and destruction (such as George, 1977).