rhorn@infinet.UUCP (Rob Horn) (04/19/87)
I think that the best response to the ``computer literacy'' question is to look at how ``automobile literacy'' has evolved. The car has had an impact on American society that is comparable to the computer's. Learning to drive is a major focus of several years in a teenager's life. When you examine it, this is a rather complex issue. The law books related to driving fill many shelves, but most students focus on a distillation of a hundred or so pages of rules. There are many complex physical skills to be learned. There is a huge body of common sense to be learned about proper behaviour. There is esoterica like map reading to be learned. But it is not called ``automobile literacy''. It is called ``learning to drive''. The focus is on the proper use of the car. Cars have evolved to be much simpler over the past decades. You no longer need to learn about the advance lever, nor about the proper method for holding the starter handle. (How many readers know the proper method I wonder?) Tire changing and other simple mechanical skills are no longer crucial. Computers have not been made that easy. You still need to know some of the equivalents to these obsolete automotive skills. But no-one expects you to understand combustion wavefront control or the important stoichiometric characteristics of the CVCC combustion chambers. You aren't even expected to be able to perform an engine overhaul. Because these skills are not needed to make effective use of a car. They are only needed by designers and repairers of cars. With computers this same separation of skills exists, but few of the educators understand which subjects fall into which category. The general public is in even worse shape in guessing what skills they should learn. This is compounded by a very basic problem. People apparently think that computers ``think'' in some sense, and try to understand them as another kind of person or animal. They have not learned the basic rule espoused by my mother after she learned their use: ``Computers are incredibly boring things. They have these simple-minded rules they follow, and once you know those rules there is nothing left to learn.'' I suspect that there was a similar culture shock in the transition from the horse (equally stupid, but emotional and not fully predictable) to the automobile (just a dumb machine). Rob Horn Infinet, 40 High St., North Andhyclike t
tony@VLSI.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU (Tony Marriott) (04/23/87)
Steve Barber's article points out many shortcomings of the communication "habit" as we might call it. In this article, he describes how he attended a hackers' social responsibility seminar and saw a video on swedish co-management. In the article, Steve states that they are apparently "light-years ahead" of us, and does not see any infrastructure for such communication (i.e. 80% union enrollment) in this country. My first response is social, I think, well the Swedish country is probably very homogenous, if they are anything like the Icelanders (and here I quote a tv news show) they are racist. They maintain a status quo by their social institutions which is always fraying in this country due to the tolerance for immigration and naturalization and also by a self-actualization which is different historically and etc., etc. My second response is that Steve defines this activity to be a means by which craftsmen and others (ha, computer literacy, I lost the quote by button pushing!) may improve their efficiency. So I wonder; is this good, and wouldn't we all much rather be replaced by a good robot so that we can do something important? So, my third response is: What exactly was Steve discussing? Is this metal work ? (Sure, important stuff, so we can have new cars.) Or is this activity (both the interacting and the technology) relevant to jobs that aren't involved in machine and assembly? Do construction people have say in how the building goes up? Do clerical people have say on how the claim is managed? (Just how many light years are we talking?) But in light of the fact that no examples were given, I am forced to ask, What was he talking about? Thanks!