Details

Subject(s)

• Computers—History [Browse]
• Computers—Social aspects [Browse]

Editor

• Lente, Dick van [Browse]

Series

• ACM books. [More in this series]
• ACM Bks

Summary note

When electronic digital computers first appeared after World War II, they appeared as a revolutionary force. Business management, the world of work, administrative life, the nation state, and soon enough everyday life were expected to change dramatically with these machines' use. Ever since, diverse prophecies of computing have continually emerged, through to the present day.As computing spread beyond the US and UK, such prophecies emerged from strikingly different economic, political, and cultural conditions. This volume explores how these expectations differed, assesses unexpected commonalities, and suggests ways to understand the divergences and convergences.This book examines thirteen countries, based on source material in ten different languages--the effort of an international team of scholars. In addition to analyses of debates, political changes, and popular speculations, we also show a wide range of pictorial representations of "the future with computers."

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Source of description

• Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
• Description based on print version record.

Contents

• Intro
• Prophets of Computing
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Prophets and Narratives
• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Prophets
• 1.3 Computers and Futures: Meta-narratives of Socio-technical Change
• 1.3.1 Revolution
• 1.3.2 Technological Determinism
• 1.3.3 Cultural Lag
• 1.3.4 Universalism and Globalization
• 1.3.5 Modernization
• 1.3.6 Diffusion
• 1.3.7 Appropriation
• 1.4 Overview of the Book
• 1.4.1 PART I: Across the Iron Curtain
• 1.4.2 PART II: Building National Computing Cultures
• 1.4.3 PART III: Preparing for the Computer Age
• I ACROSS THE IRON CURTAIN
• 2 Man-Machine Dialogues: Computer Representations and Appropriations in the Soviet Union and the United States
• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Scenarios of Interaction: The Human-like Machines of Boris Artzybasheff
• 2.3 "In the Loop": Appropriation and Divergence
• 2.4 Conclusions: Today for Tomorrow
• 3 Microcomputers for the Masses. Jack Tramiel and Commodore
• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 From Ghetto to Ghetto
• 3.3 Around the World with Portable Typewriters
• 3.4 Adding Machines and the Cost of Capital
• 3.5 Semiconductors and the High-tech Consumer
• 3.6 The Consumer Computer
• 3.7 Conclusion
• 4 Banking the Future of Banking: Savings Banks and the Digital Age in East and West Germany
• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Computing a Socialist Future: High Expectations of Digital Technology among East German Banking Officials
• 4.3 Computing German Capitalism? Savings Banks as Early Adopters and "Processors" of the Future in West Germany
• 4.4 Comparison and Outlook
• II BUILDING NATIONAL COMPUTER CULTURES
• 5 The United Kingdom: Going it Alone?
• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.2 Britain Meets the Computer
• 5.3 The 1950s: First in the World?
• 5.4 The 1960s: From World-beating to Worldly-wise
• 5.5 American Practices and British Identity
• 5.6 The Challenge of the Chip.
• 5.7 Into the 1980s: Strategic Dreams in Straitened Times
• 5.8 British Computers for the People: Microcomputing and Popular Culture
• 5.9 Conclusion
• 6 French National Paths Within a Global Computing Market
• 6.1 Introduction
• 6.2 The Independent and Voluntary Nature of Computer Equipment Programs in France (from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s)
• 6.2.1 The Diversity of the French Industrial Environment during the 1950s and 1960s
• 6.2.2 The Bull Affair and the "French Delay" Theme
• 6.2.3 The Trial and Error of European Strategy
• 6.3 Intervention, Adoption, and Adaptation: Different Strategies to "Computerize Society" (mid-1970s to 1980s)
• 6.3.1 Office Equipment and the "State Machine"
• 6.3.2 A Broad Strategic Vision for Minitel, or "the Final Moment of Glory for the Engineering State"
• 6.3.3 The "Computing for All" Plan: Increasingly Controversial Interventionism
• 6.4 Conclusion
• 7 Dutch Prophets: Pragmatic Optimism and Suppressed Fears
• 7.1 Introduction
• 7.2 Computing in the Netherlands Until 1970
• 7.3 Reflections in the Press
• 7.4 Power, Authority, and Rational Decision-Making: Toonder's Stories
• 7.5 The Public Role of the Computer Pioneers
• 7.6 A Self-Proclaimed Prophet: Fred Polak
• 7.7 From the Late 1950s to the Early 1970s: The Automation Debate
• 7.8 Should Philips Challenge the Giant?
• 7.9 The Census Debate in the Netherlands, 1970-1971
• 7.10 Conclusion
• 8 Computing the New China. The Founding Fathers, the Maoist Way, and Neoliberalism, 1945-1986
• 8.1 Introduction
• 8.2 The Founding Fathers of the Chinese Computer Industry
• 8.2.1 The First Computers
• 8.3 The Importance of the Soviet Union
• 8.3.1 The Role of Sergey Lebedev
• 8.3.2 The 12 Year Scientific Plan
• 8.4 Computers During the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, 1958 to the Early 1970s.
• 8.5 Deng's Policy for Overcoming the Giant
• 8.6 Newspapers and Science Fiction
• 8.6.1 Newspapers
• 8.6.2 The Literary View
• 8.7 Conclusions
• 8.A Annex
• Sergey Lebedev's Suggestions after His Official Visit to China, 1958
• 9 Digital India. Swadeshi-Computing in India since 1947
• 9.1 Introduction
• 9.2 Modern Visions: Political Architects and Scientific Prophecies
• 9.2.1 Nehru's "Temples of Modern India"
• 9.2.2 Data Policy: National Planning and Pursuing the Computer
• 9.3 Autonomy and Alliances
• 9.3.1 Aligning India in the Cold War-A Computer Aid Policy
• 9.3.2 Developing a Computer Nation: Educating Computer Elites
• 9.3.3 Automation Protests and Computer Criticism
• 9.4 Rival Visions-India's National Computing Culture
• 9.4.1 Big Science versus Appropriate Technologies
• 9.4.2 "The World is Flat?" India's Quest for "Self-reliance," the Clash with IBM, and the Triumph of IT Services
• 9.4.3 Supercomputers and Simputers
• 9.5 Digital Divides: The Digital Society, Its Boundaries and Hierarchies
• 9.6 Conclusion: Digital India. India's Struggle for "Digital Independence" between Nationalism and Globalism in the Twenty-first Century
• III PREPARING FOR THE COMPUTER AGE
• 10 Computers in the Shadow of Communism: The Polish People's Republic
• 10.1 Introduction
• 10.2 Managers and Constructors: Computing in Poland
• 10.3 Scientists and Journalists: Education and Entertainment Mixed with Propaganda
• 10.3.1 1946 to the 1970s: Overview
• 10.3.2 The 1950s and 1960s: The Restructuring of Work and Society
• 10.3.3 The 1950s and 1960s: Predicting Development of Electronics and Communication
• 10.3.4 The 1970s and 1980s: The Man-Machine Relationship, Artificial Intelligence, and Surveillance
• 10.4 Writers: Polish Science Fiction Between Censorship and Western Influence.
• 10.4.1 Early Period. Inspirations from USSR and the Early Works of Lem
• 10.4.2 The 1960s and 1970s: Not Only Lem
• 10.4.3 Late Period. Sociological SF
• 10.5 Conclusion
• 10.6 Epilogue
• 11 Dreams of the Vanquished: Narratives of Postwar Japan
• 11.1 Introduction
• 11.2 Narratives of Overcoming the Defeat by Means of Computers: From 1945 to the Mid-1960s
• 11.3 Narratives of the Information Revolution and Computopia: Mid-1960s to 1980
• 11.4 Conclusion: Computers and the Reassembling of Postwar Japan
• 12 Computopia and Its Discontents: Dual Narratives in South Korea
• 12.1 Introduction
• 12.2 The Computer: Adopted for Economic Planning, Received as an Electronic Brain
• 12.2.1 Introduction of Computing Technologies and the KIST Computer Center
• 12.2.2 Much Higher-speed Calculation than Abacus
• 12.2.3 Awe and Wonder: Electronic Brain or All-purpose Machine
• 12.3 Information Society in the Middle of Industrialization
• 12.3.1 Computopia, or What the Information Society Will Look Like
• 12.3.2 A Postindustrial Information Society amid Industrialization?
• 12.3.3 Myths and Errors in Computopia
• 12.3.4 Fear of Surveillance
• 12.4 Conclusion
• 13 Big Brother in New Zealand: Anticipating the Computer
• 13.1 Introduction
• 13.2 The Computing Environment in New Zealand
• 13.3 The New Zealand Computer Society
• 13.4 Freedom or Control?
• 13.5 A Life of Leisure or Lack of Work?
• 13.6 Education for the New World
• 13.7 Big Brother, Keeping Us Safe or Invading Our Privacy?
• 13.8 Conclusion
• 14 Conclusions: Patterns of Prophecy-Needs, Ambitions, and Doubts
• 14.1 Introduction
• 14.2 National Projects, "Development," and "Modernization"
• 14.3 "Development," "Modernization": Theory and Ideology
• 14.4 Dark Prospects
• 14.4.1 Automation and Labor
• 14.4.2 The New Technocrats
• 14.4.3 Population Registration and Privacy.
• 14.5 Determinism?
• Bibliography
• Authors' Biographies
• Prophets Contributors
• Index.

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ISBN

1-4503-9818-9

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