haas (09/22/82)
One major problem with considering the harmful effects of computerization
before implementing it is that computerization produces such a drastic
upheaval in the way things are done that present experience doesn't serve
very well as a predictor. During the five and a half years that I worked
in the business of automating warehouses, the standard method of proceeding
was:
1. Automate customer's present function
2. Observe total revolution in the way customer ran business
3. Start over from scratch with the new way of doing things.
I suspect that any consideration will very likely be off the mark. This
does not mean to say that I think we should be insensitive to the problems
which computerization sometimes creates. For example, people who happened
to earn their living as typesetters are now pretty uniformly out of work
because of the computer. Sure some of them got jobs that were created by
the computer, but some of them didn't. I think it's our duty to help
people recover from this kind of upheaval. My negative attitude is toward
the process of predicting, not toward the victim. I favor the Japanese
idea that everybody benefits from automation, so everybody supports the
retraining of the individuals whose jobs just got automated.
I also strongly support the idea of educating people about what computers
do, since it takes them out of the realm of magic and into the world of
daily experience. I think people who understand what's happening to them
are less likely to be victimized.
-- Walt Haas