Computers and Society:
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Computers and Society
More often than not in today?s world you will tend to use computers. Directly or indirectly they have been increasing their influence on our lives from their invention in the 50?s, until the current state of their presence in every aspect of our lives. What before was done on paper, today is done on the same paper, a computer, a copy, and a form to input the data into the computer. The paperless revolution has turned sour. The very purpose of the computer as a business machine -- to reduce clutter, to organize data better and faster, and mostly to reduce the paperwork, has been abandoned for a system dictated to us by the needs of our computers. This is only one way that computers are being misused in our society.
Think for example of the regular answer you would get if you call up any beuracratic agency, such as a bank or a government agency, with any problem. The first response would probably involve something like: ?Our computer doesn?t show that record?, or ?The computer doesn?t say you did so and so.? That is also probably as far as you will get to solving that problem. The computer is the perfect cover-up for the clerk on the other end of the phone line. If the computer says so, how can anyone argue? The computer shows no record of such and such a paper, and therefore it must not exist, and that is the end. The clerk need not involve himself in though as to why the record is not in the computer, or how did it get out of the computer, but what the almighty computer tells him is certainly enough.
There is not a thing in our lives anymore that is not governed by computers. The computer handles our paperwork, calculates our salaries, grades, our car?s mileage. It is almighty, all-powerful, and definitely not to be argued with. What we do forget in this line of though is that computers and all the information therein is produced and entered by humans, is subject to human mistakes and errors. We do not see it that way. For example, the phrase ?the computer made a mistake,? is commonly used, although everyone knows that computers cannot make mistakes, and the mistake was made by a human. But we believe that the computer is a separate entity, and thus we could say something like ?the computer made a mistake.?
The view of computers as separate entities leads us to believe that they are alive in some way, and they present us information, not the humans who supply it. Therefore the computer could provide the best scape-goat of sorts for any beuracratic organization. Now any mistakes are the computer?s mistakes, not theirs. This relieves much of the blame off the aforesaid organizations, (and is also effectively used by individuals). What makes such use of the computer even more attractive is the inferiority complex most people tend to have before a computer. Most people believe that since a computer is not human, it is always right, and the phrase ?It is not in the computer? becomes equivalent to ?It does not exist.? How can it exist if the almighty computer does not know about it? Thus there is evident the ?worship? of the computer in a way. The exploiters worship it for its ability to be used to answer any and all question, and not be doubted. The exploited worship it for its definition and the ?social? opinion that computers never err. The computer provides, not only the perfect cover-up, but also the perfect idol.
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