Impact of Microprocessors on the Quality of Life: Comparative Needs of Older vs. Younger Generations

Abstract

The impact of the microprocessor is that its ubiquitous applications in industrial production, agriculture, health delivery systems, the office, the home and in personal functions has a rational potential for producing a true Utopia for human-kind. Used with two counterparts not yet as far along in applications development, viz., nuclear fusion and genetic engineering, spectacular productivity increases can be projected. These increases should make it possible to provide all the material resources needed by the population of any country in the world. The highest imaginable material standard of living without reducing or damaging the resources of our planet is realistically a possibility. Steps toward this goal in terms of eliminating dirty, boring, repetitive and dangerous jobs and reducing working hours and years are already a part of first world cultures. A society to come later can provide the average individual with the time, resources, and opportunities to achieve fulfillment of personal needs, both creative and routine. Abolition of poverty, and with it, the tyranny of daily work for sustenance is almost inevitable in the framework of the knowledge revolution that is upon us. Providing of course, that humans individually and in social aggregates can keep the urge to destroy each other under control.