Whose factory made this house? Westinghouse. You bet we're hiring. If you can't wait for the recruiter, write today to George Garvey, Westinghouse Education Center, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15221. An equal opportunity employer. FEATURES PAGE On the Rehumanization of Society 6 (Winner of $1000. 1971 Cooley Essay Contest) by Rudy Engholm Artificial Intelligence 8 by Jack Howes Computer Technology in the USSR 13 an interview with Dr. J. D. Ryder by Don Willemsen CISSR 17 by Dave Klingman DEPARTMENTS Editorial 3 Letters to the Editor 9 Puzzle Contest 9 Engrineers 20 STAFF Vince Rybicki Editor Don Willemsen Associate Editor Bob Norby Features Editor Pat Sharp Humor and Art Editor Milton Horst Photography Editor Jack Howes Contributing Editor David Klingman Contributing Editor Rudy Engholm Contributing Editor Gloria Watters Business Manager Al Hoffman Advisor The 8 Hour Work Week ? ? ? ? Off hand it may seem an impossibility, but if we can stabilize our population growth and solve the pollution problem, it is an almost certainty; however, fusion power is an absolute prerequisite for this to occur. Fusion is clean, produces far fewer radioactive wastes than fission and is a virtually unlimited power source. Five cents can extract all the deuterium in one gallon of water. This amount of deuterium has the energy potential of 300 gallons of gasoline. Three hundred times x-many gallons of water in the ocean equals an enormous amount of power. Fusion power combined with continued cybernetic ad- vances could easily free man from much repetitive toil. Eight hours of work per week per person may be sufficient due to the vastly increased productivity such a combination would bring. An almost Utopian society could be ours by the early part of the next century, but just hypothesizing won't make it so. Congress must appropriate more money to fusion research in this country if we are to have fusion power by the end of the century. More people must be made aware of the necessity for greater spending in this area. The 8 hour work week can be ours but only increased cybernetic and fusion technology can make it possible. energy The energy to keep straining toward your chosen goal—and even as you attain it, look forward to the ones beyond. The energy to explore, evaluate, create, bring needed changes. Energy to burn, figuratively—that wealth possessed by the young, in mind no less than body. Energy to burn, literally, because ideas—freedom, equality, well-being, conservation of our natural environment—must be turned into realities—food, shelter, warmth, access, economic independence and the physical means to accomplish our goals. Atlantic Richfield is an energy company—in all these ways. One of the nation's thirty leading industrial corporations, and one of the ten companies producing most of our energy needs, with a strong position in diversified chemical products as well as in oil and gas. A young company still extending its boundaries as it joins the efforts and resources of the Atlantic, the Richfield and now the Sinclair Oil Companies. Aggressive and imaginative in management. Flexible in organization and operation. Open to fresh thinking. Responsible in outlook. Offering new opportunities to financial and systems analysts, accountants, auditors, engineers, geologists, geophysicists, sales representatives, agronomists and programmers. We invite your interest. See our representative on campus or your Placement Director. How are you on the Mow-through? The sure sign of a crack skeet shot is a sudden puff of clay dust against the sky. But champions share another mark that's almost as easy to spot. It's follow through. Like the top-flight skeet shooter illustrated here, our tapered roller bearing and steel engineers get results because they follow through, too. How about you? Do you want a company that involves your interest and keeps you involved till the finish? That promotes from within? Are you up to the demands thrown our way by the automotive, construction, aerospace and chemical industries? Do you have your sight set on the future—on a company like ours that has a $221 million expansion and modernization program? Then write to our Manager of College Relations. And tell him you'd like to take a shot at it. The Timken Company, Canton, Ohio 44706. Timken" bearings are sold all over the world. Manufacturing in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, South Africa and the U.S.A. An Equal Opportunity Employer (m/f). ON THE REHUMANIZATION OF SOCIETY A BRIEF HISTORY So we start at the beginning: Our national goal America, on her one hundred and ninety-fifth is to enhance/affirm the dignity/value of each birthday is in the midst of an identity crisis. individual and improve the quality of life for After an infancy in the rural agricultural era and each individual in the society as a whole. puberty in the metropolitan industrial era, she is Although it is easy enough to state this as a entering the megalopolitan cybernated era of platitude there are immediate and ominous adolescence—suspicious of her past and uncertain rumblings on the horizon. Right away there are of her future. Right at the moment she has those who would analyze our society assuming retreated to lick her wounds, to recoup, to digest the existence of an objective reality—the systems and to introspect. men, the game strategists at Rand Laboratories Why the sudden pain of insecurity and and the like. They assume that this external confusion? One possible answer is that almost all objective reality is something that can be of our study and planning and actions have been understood and controlled and that their based on the premise that the future will consequent task is to develop better methods of resemble the past. We set up a social system in measurement and control. Then there are men which the vast majority of members accepted like Carl Rogers, ee cummings, Paolo Soleri and certain assumptions about the nature of reality, others who believe that reality is subjective—the of events, of right and wrong. We carefully world tends to become what it is believed to be. planted the values of democracy, liberty, justice The magnitude and the nature of the obstacles and freedom for all in our children hoping to see preventing us from attaining our national goal are those values flourish. We taught our children such that neither view is sufficient in itself. It is science and reason and rationalism. They learned essential that both modes of viewing reality their lessons well. When they looked around remain in constant tension, and that both themselves they saw tyranny, bondage, injustice contribute to the task of designing the future.2 and freedom for few. In their blind rage they This is a crucial point; if we regard individuals as burned Watts, Newark, and Detroit. They "black boxes" alone, their personal needs will bombed and rioted. Many of them rejected the never be met. Yet if we do not view certain materialism of their parents as a kind of false problems in a societal context, they will never be security. solved. After a decade of confrontation politics, there While I do not believe in the self-perfectibility are many confused, uprooted people wandering of man, I see at least two major ways in which aimlessly about the battlefield amidst the rubble we can reach for this goal of human dignity for of former values, and America has not been the each individual. One is by recognizing the need same. Her people have begun to seriously for flexibility in our society and the other is the question the belief that money brings happiness, necessity of controlling technology. While it is war brings peace, and change brings progress. more convenient to discuss them one at a time, they will have to be considered and implemented THE PROBLEMS simultaneously. This brief history is, of course, a grossly oversimplified explanation of our inability to THE FIRST PRIORITY decide what our future should be and how we The f i r s t great priority-flexibility-is should get there. You cannot say what our unfortunately too general to be practical. What collective future should be anymore than I can. are some of the specific ways we can increase the But if I suggest a thesis and you propose an resilience of society? Most of these seem to boil antithesis, perhaps we can arrive at a synthesis of down to political changes. This does not come as what should constitute our national priorities and too great a surprise if you consider politics as a what kind of society can act on these priorities. glue that holds society together. It is impossible to even define national In this age of technology it is especially priorities unless there is a national goal. For important that the government be able to w i t h o u t a goal, everything is equally respond to changes in society at least as rapidly i m p o r t a n t - o r f o r that matter, equally as those changes occur. To a large extent, this is meaningless. And a collective national goal is hard one of the shortcomings of our government that to agree upon because as individuals, we disagree today's college students find hardest to accept about the facts and the interpretation of facts, " T h e present generation of undergraduate trends and the interpretation of trends, the students has not experienced a major scientific constraints imposed by the environment! the breakthrough which significantly altered their nature of man, and what constitutes a desirable lives. They have experienced or caused social world to live in. 1 changes galore, but radio and television seem eternal to them, always were and always will be. constituents may be far greater than that of the Jet airplanes, electric kitchens and computers junior senator's constituents by virtue of the were 'ancient' when they woke to the use of unequal power distribution between senators. reason . . . The days before Alan Shepard soared Legalized gerrymandering? into space (no irony intended—my note) are as We must also take a look at the role the lobby foggy to today's undergraduates as the feats of system plays in American politics. The seniority Buck Rogers were unreal to their parents. system and lobbies seem to exist in a symbiotic Nothing seems impossible in the world they have relationship-each helping each other. Yet neither known. No wonder they are impatient in a world is particularly representative. Supporting an where millions are starving, where wars continue effective lobby takes money and a great deal of without clear purpose, where racism is winked at it. Where does this money come from? Somehow and government slowly strangles the freedom of I find it a difficult notion to accept that the an uninvolved electorate. They see no reason for rights of the corporation are inherently more misery or any delay: America abounds in money valuable than the rights of the individual because and talent." 3 corporations can pay to safeguard those rights. If government does truly exist to serve the While a total ban on lobbying would not be people rather than its own perpetuation it must desirable or enforceable, an equal distribution of allow dissent. Without dissent there can be no congressional power might go a long way toward hope of government being responsive to the needs restoring a semblance of equal representation and of society given the time scale our society is a balance between corporate and public interests. geared to. One of the duties the government has French critic Jean-Francois Revel, author of Ni traditionally shirked since the advent of big Marx Ni Jesus (Neither Marx Nor Jesus) business is trust-busting. There are discouragingly maintains that the United States is to be the few anti-trust lawyers and indictments considering birthplace of the second world revolution. The the effect corporations have upon the individual. first was the advent of egalitarian societies and It is just as possible for the rights of an individual the second will have as its goal the establishment to be denied by an act of corporate disregard or of "economic and social equality by and through exploitation as it is for those rights to be denied cultural and personal liberty; the guarantee of by an invading enemy. We maintain an elaborate security through the participation of all in military organization to protect us from the political decisions and eventually the creation of latter, but virtually deny the possibility of the a world government." He credits this to former. America's revolutionary method of Another massive obstacle to flexibility within change—dissent. As evidence he cites the case of the government is the elaborate system of the Vietnam War; "For the first time in world overlapping bureaucratic jurisdictions that has history, a foreign war . . . is meeting with strong evolved. In a Cooley essay paper last year, Brad opposition within the country that is waging the Behrman reported that America has a war. . . the transition from internal democracy to ''hodgepodge of 80,000 local democracy in external affairs represents a giant governments—villages, townships, counties, port step."4 authorities, sewer districts, and special purpose And if the government is to act upon and not agencies." 5 Incredible amounts of waste, against dissent, then it must allow a free press. duplication, and friction result from such a The recent attempts of government to gain a system. Add to this the multitude of federal and noose to hang over the press through its wiretap state agencies and it is more than mildly and right-to-subpoena-journalists'-notes cases are surprising that our country runs at all. ominous signs that it is not willing to allow It is hard to suggest a realistic alternative dissent a totally free voice. because of the magnitude of the problem. But Not only must dissent be allowed, but a truly perhaps a move toward greater political representative government must be maintained. ecumenicalism between local governments could Somehow the checks and balances which were lead to consolidation and eventually toward carefully designed into the Constitution to regional authorities based on local needs. For prevent concentration of power have fallen into instance, a single Great Lakes Authority (with disrepair. Congress must insist on its authority, of course) would be able to respond Constitutional right to declare war and refuse to far more effectively to the total social, ecological, let quasi-legal executive orders negate that role. and economic needs of the Great Lakes Region Within Congress itself a new look must be than the hundreds of local municipalities dotting taken at the seniority system and the distribution the shoreline or the mammoth bureaucracy °f power. If two senators are elected-a freshman centered in Washington. and one with "tenure"-legally they each Admittedly there are severe problems here, represent the same number of people. Yet the too. It is a very real objection that individuals Power wielded by the senior senator's and municipalities would get trampled on in the (continued on page 18) We are seeing specialized programs that have great amounts of skill and sophistication coming closer and closer to individual use. This is what technicians call time sharing and programmers call Artificial interactive or responsive modes of usage. Large numbers of terminals can be accomodated by one computer without the person at the terminal Intellegence realizing he doesn't have the full attention of the computer. Advances in this area are limited only to the developing of more convenient means of inter- communication. Cathode ray scopes are a good step forward but What's are certainly not the ultimate in man/machine interaction. In the near future we should see some really exotic devices for communicating with com- It All About? puters. For example, already in use are terminals that give stock quotations (found in all brokerage houses), devices to convert analog information (voltages, currents, temperatures, stresses, weights, etc.) to digital information, and all the graphical terminals being experimented with today. By Jack Howes In the background of these various user oriented devices are the programs that make our computers This article will be a brief summary of the state appear to be intelligent. Unfortunately, these pro- of the art and come previews of future attractions. grams can achieve skill in only very limited Computers have been becoming more and more a problems domains. part of our life but we haven't seen anything There are game playing programs which are yet . . . computers are going to have a very pro- probably the most popular and recognized area of found effect upon us. artificial intelligence. Game programs also present Let us now look at some of the things being some of the most difficult problem areas to achieve done to increase the intelligence of automata. One skill in. There is an extremely good checker pro- major step forward was the development of high gram that was written by A. L. Samuel who works level language, i.e. computer input that resembles for I.B.M. which is probably the most skillful of all English. Building on the higher languages (Fortran, present artificial intelligence programs. There are Algol, Cobol, etc.) can produce specialized only a few grandmasters who can beat this checkers languages that are extremely readable; however, all program. Chess programs have not been as suc- of these special languages have a singular purpose cessful, most are rated as beginners. of developing programs that contribute to the in- Some of the more exotic research deals with telligence of a computer in a particular complex robots. There are working models at a few research problem. Here we see one of the main problems centers such as M.I.T. and Stanford, They have faced in developing artificial intelligence in auto- progressed far enough so that the machine can roll mata. We can place contributions into two cate- down a hall lined with rooms and find particular gories, general programs with ability to perform objects in a room. There is also a great amount of tasks in a wide variety of areas and programs which research being done toward digitizing and then exhibit expertise in particular problem areas. At interpreting voice patterns; however, there is still present both of these goals haven't been ac- a long way to go in this area . . . but you haven't complished in one computer program. seen anything yet! Puzzle Page A five dollar prize will be awarded to the first undergraduate engineering student to turn in the correct solutions in Rm. 144, E.B. 1. Two similar triangles with integeral sides have two of their sides the same. The third side differs by 387. What are the lengths of the sides? * * * 2. A book was found missing some of its pages. The sum of the page numbers of the consecutive missing pages in 8,656. What are the missing pages? * * * Dear Don, 3. A spider eats three flies a day. Until he fills his quota, he has an even chance of catching any fly I want to take this opportunity to congratulate that attempts to pass. A fly is about to make the you on the outstanding latest issue of the Spartan attempt. What are the chances of survival, given Engineer. I particularly liked the editorial, "Why that five flies have already made the attempt today? Interview?", and believe you have provided stu- * * * dents in the College of Engineering with some 4. There are N points on a circle. A straight line information that will be very helpful to them in segment is drawn between each pair of points. their career planning. Keep up the good work. How many intersections are there within the circle if no three lines are concurrect? Into how many Very truly yours, sections will the circle be divided? * * * John D. Shingleton Director of Placement 5. In Byzantine basketball there are 35 scores which are impossible for a team to total, one of them being 58. Naturally a free throw is worth less than a field goal. What is the point value of each? Revolutionary Engineering LAST ISSUE'S WINNER: Fred Larner, CPS Sen. We are interested in the (still embryonic) "Counter-Technology" branch of the "Counter- Last issue's answers. Culture movement. We feel that the present move- ment needs people from scientific, mathematical 1- (4/64) (27/63) + (12/63) (25/63) + (20/64) and technical backgrounds just as badly as scien- (23/63) + (28/64) (21/630) = 13/36 tists, engineers, and technicians need the social consciousness which this movement reflects. It is * * * our belief that communes, from the point of view of their own survival, must begin with the most ad- 2. 31. The terms of the sequence are represen- vanced technologies evolved by the present tations of 16 in different bases, from 16 to 2. capitalist society and begin to remold them to * * * congruence with a different totality of social relations. 3. Let x be the radius of the larger circle, then x(x-9) = (x-5)(x-5). x = 25 We are presently working with several groups The diameters of the circles are 50 and 41 inches. planning to form communities and we are actively exploring possible ecologically compatible, etc. * * * technologies which could be utilized by such communities. 4. All of the triangular fields are the same area, 9 acres. The area of the center triangle is V~sTs~^T) (s - b) ( s - c) where a = V7675 = V7U, Contact: AQUARIUS PROJECT c = VT8, and s = (a + b + c) /2. The farmer owned P.O. Box 4013 100 acres. Berkeley, California 94704 That cylinder, the size of The U.S. Postal Service is busily streamlining good thermal and chemical compatibility with sili- York, N.Y. The International Nickel Company of itself with some of the most sophisticated electronicon. Because it enhances formability, bonding, and Canada, Limited, Toronto. International Nickel a pea, is a building block of all hardware in-or out of-this world. electrical conductivity. And because corrosive humid- Limited. London, England. ty won't faze it. (Nor snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor space-age electronics gear. Optical scanners to decipher addresses in over 90 different type fonts. Computers. Coders. High-speedgloom of night, for that matter.) Soon millions will put more zip printers. Giant, 15-ton electro-mechanical sorters. Insignificant as the little cylinder looks, it took over 4,000,000 pounds of nickel to make enough of in your mail. And nickel's By 1975, this equipment should begin to slash postal operating expenses as much as $500 million them for the electronics industry last year. helping make it happen. year. And make a whopping improvement in service Just as our metal is a helper, so International At the core of the new machines-and of businessNickel is a helper. We assist dozens of different indus- medical, aerospace, and other advanced electronictries all over the world in the use of metals. We offer technical information. And the benefit of our experi- hardware-are millions of spidery gadgets like the only in our photo. Anywhere from 29 to 100 percent nickelence. Often, Inco metallurgists are actually able to they're hermetically sealed packages for miniaturizedanticipate alloys that will be needed in the future, and components. Most house tiny chips of silicon covers tosetabout creating them. with transistors, resistors, diodes, andcomplexcir- This kind of helpfulness, we figure, will encour- cuitry-complete systems for storing, amplifying, ageourcustomers to keep coming back to us. otherwise harnessing faint electronic impulses. And that helps all around. The nickel in the packages helps because it has The International Nickel Company, Inc., New The small space big sound. About the only thing missing in the average guy's pad is space. And good stereo. That's because it's hard to pack a big stereo sound in a small space. And big jobs take up so much room you have to throw out half your li- brary or pile it on the floor. Which is why you should check out the new Sylvania ACS 12WH. Big sound. Small size. Big sound from two globe speakers you can swivel and turn to get the best stereo balance for your room. Each one has a four-inch extended- range air suspension speaker that sounds as good as conventional ones two sizes larger. Yet they're small enough to fit on the shelf right next to "War and Peace." The solid state AM/FM/FM Stereo receiver fits on a shelf, too. It's less than a foot deep and only five inches high. But it's still big on features. Like a Field Effect Transistor FM front end. Ceramic Filter I.F. Strip. Fifty watts of peak music power. If space is really tight, just stack the turntable right on top of the receiver. It'll work great any place you put it because it's a BSR Micro-mini with a diamond stylus. Put it all together and it'll fit on one two-foot shelf. For about $200.* How's that for no-space age living? 'Manufacturer's suggested retail price for Model ACS12WH is $199.95. readout which is limited to only a few specific characters and is nol as versa- tile as our cathode ray readout. The BECM-6 had six to eight storage drums which were 18" in diunetei running at approximately 850 rpm which is comparable to our technology on the 1LLIAD-1 in 1(>54. This also indicated the computers low storage capabilities. The printer was very inef- ficient, printing only six lines per minute. The Russians were also just in- stalling a plotter they purchased from France. Don: Do you think the Russians could gain from our technology, or would it up- set their system by selling them com- puters manufactured in the US? Computer Technology Dr. Ryder: First of all, the Russians say, "There is nothing to learn from the West." in the USSR Until recently they would not use any of our technology made available to them due to loss of face with their In the summer of 1970 Dr. J. D. Ryder was part own people. Now, however, they are of a team of U.S. scientists and engineers sponsored beginning to buy magnetic tape and by the State Department and I.E.E.E. He visited tape units from the West. The inability the USSR and some of its electronics and computer of the Russian chemists to produce factories and institutes as part of a scientific ex- good magnetic tape is one of the main change program. Here are some of the views Dr. reasons for their low storage in com- Ryder brought back on computer technology in puters. As a matter of fact, the com- the USSR. puter institute of Novo Sibirsk used almost all paper punch tape. Don: Who is ahead in computer technology, Don: Do the Russians use semiconductors the US or the USSR and by how and integrated circuits in their com- much? puters? Dr. Ryder: We are definitely ahead of the Dr. Ryder: The Russians are 1 - 3 years behind Russians in computer technology. We the US in semiconductor technology. are ahead by at least several years to a Their diode and transistor facilities are computer generation; although, the not as good as ours and therefore Russians claim to have two very capa- their semiconductors are not as good. ble computers hidden somewhere Don: Are computers used in factories or for underground. accounting or for stock purposes? Don: What are the Russian computers like? Dr. Ryder: Not very often. The only computer we Dr. Ryder: Their best, the BECM-6 which is saw in use while in Russia was at a comparable in arithmetic ability to semiconductor factory. The main our CDC 3600 is slow and very bulky. reason many places do not have com- For example, their key punchers ap- puters or are slow in getting them is pear to have a large typewriter the great deal of bureaucracy in the mounted on a high metal table which Soviet Union. is filled with hardware. There is no Don: Do you think computer technology in automatic verifier on their keypunches and the operator must read what is the US made it possible for us to reach printed on every card leading to many the moon before the Russians. errors. While we were there, the Dr. Ryder: Yes, they have no backup computers Russians were only beginning to de- like the US and, being able to look at a cide what type of system to devise to spacecraft, their instruments were very have multiple access to their com- sparse. It looked like they didn't have puters. Their consoles had nixytube any computers on board. Marginal land: the same area raises 30 chickens or 1 ton of catfish The farmers at a "Kombinat" (collective farm) in Nasice Breznica, Yugoslavia are really making their acreage pay off. They flooded it, and are raising good old American channel catfish. About three years ago, FMC visited the Kombinat as part of a state department- approved agricultural development program. At the time, the Yugoslavians were raising carp in huge man-made ponds covering mar- ginal land—land not best suited for crops. "Why not switch to farming catfish?" we asked. "They yield twice the harvest. And they bring a premium price in the market- place." The Yugoslavians said, "Good idea—where do we get the fish?" That's when our work began. We con- tracted to ship them 21,000 fingerlings, 110 brood stock, and 120,000 newly hatched "fry," knowing live fish shipment mortality rates often reached 50%. To do this job, special FMC containers were developed to fit into the baggage com- partment of a Pan Am 707. They maintained precise life support levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, ammonium, and controlled thermal levels, too. During four 50 hour trips from St. Louis to Yugoslavia we lost just six fish. A record. More importantly, Yugoslavia has more productive "farmland." Fish farming, or aquaculture, is an exten- sion of FMC agricultural programs. The company is capable of building ponds, sup- plying pond cleaning and pond operating equipment, building fish processing and can- ning plants, as well as containers for ship- ping fish by air. We also make printing presses, chemicals, snowmobiles, rayon cord, and several thou- sand other diversified products. To discover what else we're doing to make life livable, see your placement director for our publication, "Careers with FMC." Or write FMC Corporation, P. O. Box 760, San Jose, California 95106. We are an equal op- portunity employer. Water makes many things grow and flourish, in- development and management of water resources cluding your career. That's why engineers, land- must be balanced with protection of the natural scape architects, environmentalist/ecologists, environment. economists, planners and many other modern professionals have a chance to do big things—in Our career opportunities are not concerned with every sense—by launching careers with the water resources alone, however. Modern con- Corps of Engineers. struction, engineering design, systems analysis, computer technology, R&D, topography—these The Corps is responsible for overall planning and are just a few of the other areas where you can management of our nation's principal water re- build a career of total involvement, achievement sources. The question you will confront is no less and satisfaction with the world's largest engineer- than: "How can we improve the quality of life ing/construction organization. in these United States as it relates to water?" Eager to share a real challenge? This is the When you find the answers, we'll help you put opportunity you're looking for. Write today for full them to work. This unique challenge involves information. CORPS OF ENGINEERS, Department both your own technical education and talents of the Army, Washington, D.C. 20314 • An equal and a total commitment on our part that the opportunity employer m/f for computer oriented faculty, government agen- cies, and business concerns. The apprentices were supervised by upper-division undergraduates who also taught informal classes in fortran pro- gramming, assembly language, mathematical logic, statistics, social science research methods, and com- puter data processing. They also worked in teams of three or four members on projects and problems provided by social science faculty and the CISSR technical staff. The program grew to be quite large in the late 1960's and early 1970's, with as many as 90 undergraduates employed at one time. In 1970 the Center for Urban Affairs at MSU began granting funds to CISSR to train minority students, which helped swell the ranks. The Apprenticeship CISSR Program produced many competent programmers and consultants. The other sub-program was the Graduate Intern Program, designed to train social science graduate students in computer research methods. They re- ceived much the same training as the undergradu- ates and after one year they were returned to their departments. Recently tighter budgets have begun to have an effect on CISSR's training program. First, the Graduate Intern Program is no longer in effect due to departmental reductions in graduate assistants. Second, the Federal Work-Study Program has be- come more stringent in its requirements for Fi- nancial need. Third, employment opportunities in computer-related fields have suffered along with by Dave Klingman other fields. In view of these developments CISSR is currently upgrading the quality of the training The Computer Institute for Social Science Re- program while reducing its size. Hiring is becoming search of Michigan State University was established more selective and training is being oriented toward in 1963 with two major functions. First, it is a re- CISSR's own technical functions. At present there search institute designed to provide research oppor- are 33 apprentices and 11 programmers and con- tunities for social science faculty. There are usually sultants. The Training Supervisor is now a faculty about ten faculty in the research section all of position in the technical section. The curriculum is whom hold joint appointments between CISSR and concentrated in fewer courses taking a longer their home departments. Second, CISSR has a period of time and in CISSR-related projects being technical section designed to provide computer done individually. services for the MSU academic community, pri- marily developing and maintaining programs for Many CISSR projects are being completed in an social science data processing, and consulting in undergraduate four credit course sponsored by the their use. Computer Science Department, CPS490, taught by the staff of the technical section. The course in- At first CISSR began hiring faculty and graduate volves a lecture covering the design and techniques students to perform these technical functions. But of social science data processing program libraries, with the establishment of the Federal Work-Study and a CISSR-related project assigned to each stu- Program in 1966 CISSR began hiring talented dent. Thus, the student's work for CISSR is being undergraduates. Initially there were about five rewarded with academic credit rather than pay. programmer-consultants supervised by a staff Finally in the area of graduate training, the College member who also trained them. However, as more of Social Science is now requiring graduate stu- were hired it became evident that a formal training dents to have a minimum level of training or ex- Program was necessary. Such a program was set up perience in computer usage before they will be with two sub-programs. authorized to use the university's computers. To The Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program was help provide this training the CISSR technical designed not only to supply CISSR with technical section is conducting a non-credit course in com- puter data processing for social scientists. personnel, but also to provide research assistants THE REHUMANIZATION OF SOCIETY (continued from page 7) reply with a giant shock wave. This triumph of ruthless quest for efficiency. And yet if dissent technology symbolically blinded us, and we have and other forms of public feedback such as been blinded by its power ever since. hearings and referendums were encouraged it Technology equals power. Man discovered that might be a workable alternative to the present he could unlease vast amounts of power-far bureaucratic inefficiency. more than the individual imagination can cope It is becoming more and more obvious that with. Enamoured with technology we have government, like any other complex problem, is a exploited nature, each other and ourselves. complicated series of trade-offs. Sooner or later What have we lost? Or gained? Does our we have to admit that no government can meet individuality mean anything? Can technology be all of our needs. It is the classic enigma of the controlled? Do we want to control it? These are conservative and the liberal—how far should the kinds of serious questions people are asking government go? Ideally, a government should be themselves—or are being confronted with today. capable of guaranteeing the rights of the Take the case of one James Driver, upper-middle individual without specifying how the individual class, suburban-dwelling, tax-paying member of is to use his rights. our high-pressure society: "One winter morning It is also a sad but true reflection that a last year James Driver pulled away from his government of men and women mirrors the faults Bloomfield Hills home, looked at the slush and of those men and women. Our press has coined a the traffic, made a U-turn, pulled back into his phrase to describe one of those faults—the driveway, turned off the motor . . . After twenty "credibility gap." Even this euphemism does not years worth of rides on the suburban whirligig, obscure the fact that the government has lied, is Driver decided that morning that it was time to lying, and will probably continue to lie. Recall get off." Why? "Now I'll be controlling my own last spring how the present administration stoutly life. . . (referring to his plans to move to maintained that absolutely no United States Gaylord, Michigan.)"7 In fact it is only recently forces were operating in Laos. That took on a that large numbers of people are becoming aware rather hollow sound when an American newsman of the relationship between technology and the brought back a tape recording of a U.S. forward quality of life. For somewhere along the line we air controller directing air strikes deep inside were lulled into believing that quality of life and Laos. Then recall how the claim was changed to convenience in life were the same thing and that say that no U.S. ground troops were operating in no good thing would come of questioning the Laos. And yet pictures were published in the assumptions of our technological society. newspapers of American civilians (allegedly CIA In order to gain insight into the assumptions of men) on Laotian air bases. There is no real modern technology it is necessary to step back to evidence available to us one way or the the dawn of the age of reason. It was Galileo other-only nagging doubts. It is these nagging who said "where the senses fail, reason steps in." doubts that are fed by half-truths from Newton's concept of the world was that of a Washington; they corrode any respect one might large machine, governed by certain natural laws. have for the integrity of the government. If This thinking not only persisted but found its government is to be a resilient body capable of way into the world of human affairs where responding to change and dissent, it must be able humans are believed to be governed by the to admit mistakes and reflect greater honesty in "laws" of sociology, psychology, and statistics. its dealings. The outcome of all this has been the gradual Finally, in a flexible government there is room reduction of man to a mere cog in the wheels of for political un-solutions. When asked what he history and the correspondent feelings of would do about the "racial problem" during the uselessness, anonymity, alienation and the view 1965 New York Mayoralty campaign, William that life is absurd. And in one modern sense it is. Buckley replied: "Nothing-except promise "Our error (in technological society) has been in justice."6 constructing so much superstructure to encourage productive performance that man has become THE OTHER PRIORITY i d e n t i f i e d by his p r o d u c t i v e function. Dawn, July, 1945. New Mexico-The new Cybernation then threatens man's identity by Tower of Babel stands in the desert. The high o f f e r i n g non-human ways of executing priests have gathered to make a burnt offering to technique."8 Take an example: Golf is a game in the god of reason. It is the celebration of the which the object is to move a small ball of finite triumph of the technology of man. mass sequentially from one predetermined As the time of the lighting of the altar grows location to another with a minimum amount of near men dare speak only in hushed voices. And expended energy. It is certainly within the scope then the tower is consumed in a flash as bright as of present-day technology to build a a thousand suns. Hideous fireball and mushroom "golf-machine" that could take wind velocity, clouds slowly rise in the sky, and the heavens distance, trajectories, (etc., etc.) into account and shoot the ball from one hole to the next. I have Specifically, how can our American society no doubt that with practice it could reduce the begin to exercise control over the pervasive grasp game to a series of eighteen "holes-in-one." Or of technology? This is not an easy question and better still, how about a system of pipes between it certainly does not beg an easy answer. holes with air pressure driving the ball from place The very first step is to want to control to place controlled by a computer to remove any technology. The newspapers are filled with possibility of human error. Absurd? Of course! reports of influential people proposing purely Yet that is exactly what we have done with the technical solutions to socio-technological jobs and lives of more than a few in our society. problems. This is tantamount to saying that We have taken away their chance to make technological skill—if only we carry it far mistakes, to learn and to be human. In other enough-is the final answer. And in the end it words, we have stripped their purpose from their means imposing a technical solution on function. Going to work each morning on the somebody, i.e., making them submit to its suburban whirligig was a function without mastery. So the cycle continues. meaning for James Driver. In our society we can force change to occur in The demands of our technological society have three main ways—voluntary self-control, public taken something away from us—that elusive pressure, and government control. Two of these quality of life or the joy of living. As the Book are ways of imposing solutions on people and of Ecclesiastes so eloquently put it: "To may not fundamentally change their nature or everything there is a season and a time to every their outlook. In fact, imposed changes often purpose under heaven . . . a time to break down have a way of being transient and easily and a time to build up . . . a time to keep and a disregarded. But when the change comes from time to cast away . . . a time to keep silence and within a person, it is far more permanent. a time to speak . . . What profit hath he that Another way to look at this is to observe that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?" change can be effected at any level in the strata (Ecclesiastes chapter 3). of society, but the deeper the level, the more Toynbee, the great historian, argues that pervasive and permanent the change. So the real civilizations are cyclic in nature. This seems to be question becomes, "How can we change the a reflection on the cyclic nature of individuals. nature of people so they in turn can change the We need challenges and activity and schedules. nature of technology?" Yet we need times of privacy and retreat and We must educate. Granted that education is a times to think. There even seems to be a certain slow process where progress is measured by the sense of frustration and tension that builds up if change over generations of students; it is still a we are isolated from frequent encounters with way to effect deep changes. But it will mean nature. Nature here refers not only to grass and altering the fabric of our educational systems trees and wide open spaces, but to the nature of away from job training and toward development man as expressed through his art and his music. of the total person. These are not easy changes Last year CBS did an interesting documentary and are much more long-term in nature than the study for their program "60 Minutes." The study political changes suggested earlier. was a comparison of murder rates in Houston—a city of immense technological progress—and her sister city in Mexico. At the time of the study, Houston had the highest murder rate of any U.S. REFERENCES city, but the rate of her sister city was far lower. ^Dialogue on Technology, edited by Robert Theobald, Bobbs-Merril Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1967, p. 7 One of the commentators noted that the introduction. homicide rates were roughly inversely 2 Op. Cit., Theobald, p. 16. proportional to the number of public fountains in 3 The Grim Generation, Robert Kavanaugh, Trident Press, each city. Now one does not have to be very New York, 1970, p. 139. bright to see that there is no magical connection 4 " A Foreign Vision of the Coming American Revolution," between homicide rates and public fountains. TIME magazine, February 22, 1971, p. 18. And yet, doesn't the number of fountains a city 5 "The Engineer and the Environment," Brad Behrman, A has say something about its concern for the Cooley essay paper published in the Michigan Technic, well-being of the individual? It is an attempt to October, 1970, p. 17. s keep the joy in life that technology can so easily Up From Liberalism, William Buckley, Bantam Books, rob us of. New York, 1968, p. xx introduction. 7 A Feature Article in the Detroit Free Press, March 14, A view that is becoming more widely accepted 1971, p. 1. today is that "the order of the universe is not '"The Admiration of Technique," Edward Mclrvine, An just passively observed but is imposed, at least essay published in Dialogue on Technology, p. 4 1 . Partially, by man's mind." 9 We believe that we '"Human Imagination in the Age of Space," William R. can invent the future. And inventing the future Cozart, An essay published in Dialogue on Technology, means gaining mastery over technology. p. 48. ' "All right, you idiots, fall in-on the double!" barked the sergeant as he strode into the barracks. Each soldier grabbed his hat and jumped to his feet, except one-a private who lay in his bunk reading a book. "Well?" roared the sergeant. "Well," observed the private. "There certainly were a lot of them, weren't there?" "It must be terrible to be lame," the woman remarked, dropping a quarter into the beggar's hat. "It sure is, lady," he agreed. "But wouldn't it be worse to be blind?" she asked. "Much worse," replied the beggar. "People kept giving me slugs when I Two old friends, both prosperous Civil Engineer: "You know some- was blind." Industrial Engineers, hadn't seen each thing, honey? I'm going to call you other in some time and happened to jello because you're so easy to make." "I was married twice." explained meet on the beach at Miami. "What Coed: "That's all right, dear. I'll the Civil Engineer to a newly gradu- brings you here Jack?" asked one. call you oatmeal because you're done ated Electrical Engineer, "and I'll "Actually, Fred, a tragedy. My in three minutes." never marry again. My first wife died business was burned to the ground, after eating poison mushrooms and my and I'm taking a vacation on part of second died of a fractured skull." the $250,000 insurance money." "Do you believe in clubs for "That's a shame," offered the "What a coincidence," responded women?" a friend asked W.C. Fields. friend. "How did that happen?" Fred. "My business was destroyed by a "Yes," replied Fields, "if every "She wouldn't eat her mushrooms." flood and I got almost a million in other form of persuasion fails." insurance." A drunk fell on his pocket flask and After a moment of thoughtful A young lady, with a touch of hay smashed it, naturally lacerating his rear silence, Jack leaned close to his friend fever, took with her to a dinner party end. Upon arriving home, he was and whispered: "Tell me, Fred—how afraid to awaken his wife, so he pro- two handkerchiefs, one of which she do you start a flood?" cured band-aids and a mirror and pro- stuck in her bosom. At dinner she be- ceeded to apply first-aid. Came dawn, gan rummaging to the right and the Freshman: I think your girl is his wife shook him and shouted, left in her bosom for the fresh handker- spoiled. "Were you drunk last night?" chief. Engrossed in her search, she Senior: No, it's just the perfume "Why, no!" reassured her soggy suddenly realized the conversation had she's wearing. spouse. ceased and people were watching her, "Oh, yeah?" yelled his wife. Then fascinated. Three Indian squaws of the Al-jabr what are all those band-aids doing on In confusion, she murmered, 1 tribe were seated in their wigwams the mirror?" with their families. One, seated on a know I had two when I came in." deer hide, had one child. The second, A certain brewer sent a sample of seated on an elk hide, also had one M.E.: "Going out with girls a lot his beer to a lab to be analyzed. child. The third seated on a hippo- keeps you young." A few days later he received a re- potamus hide, had twins. C.E. "How come?" port from the chemist: That proved that the squaw of the M.E. "I started going out with "Dear Sir: hippopotamus was equal to the sum girls when I was a freshman two years ''Your horse had diabetes." of the squaws of the other two hides. ago and I'm still a freshman." Stereotype Many who use the word wouldn't know one when they see one. Those who recognize it as a metal casting of a newspaper page, curved for the press, may be deriving a livelihood from this and everything else they know about printing. The more people who depend on the printing industry for a living and the more they know, the better for Kodak. The intricate com- plex of businesses and crafts centered on the art of printing and packaging is more than a principal market for specialized Kodak products. One way or another, it provides a life role for a not inconsiderable segment of mankind. Finding a role in life does seem to be a common problem. So you picture an executive conference. Sweeping generali- ties uttered, fine details worried over, a strong voice takes command: "Products alone can't sustain the growth we look for. The key is people—people to man our customer indus- tries, to want growth in them as much as we do. Wouldn't we really be accomplishing more with a campaign to attract more kids to printing?" Not quite. We can't and shouldn't mount a campaign powerful enough to lure large numbers of kids into printing and the graphic arts, but we have collaborated with new-style academics, the printing and allied industries, and their unions in a measure- ment just completed of 1) manpower needs in these fields (not just ambitions), 2) how changes in technology promise to affect the needs. Interest in the findings should be made known to W. F. Flack, Dept. 942, Kodak, Rochester, N.Y. 14650. HOW CAN A SHEET OF SILICONE RUBBER HELP TURN ATEN-YEAR-OLD INVALID INTO ATEN-YEAR-OLD ATHLETE? A few years ago, General the clogged arteries of an adult. Electric engineers developed a Orto save the life of an accident silicone copolymer rubber with victim whose lungs give out. some remarkable properties. That extra time may be all it It's a membrane that permits takes to help put thousands of the rapid exchange of oxygen those invalids back on their feet. and carbon-dioxide molecules. It's a pretty clear example of So ifs made a revolutionary how a technological innovation new artificial lung possible. The can help solve a social problem. GE Peirce lung™ oxygenates A lot of times, the effect of tech- blood in much the same way nology on society is ratherdirect. the human lung does. That's why at General Elec- Thafs a major engineering tric, we judge innovations more accomplishment. But thafs not by the impact they'll have on the reason it's important. people's lives than by theirsheer The GE Peirce lung works technical wizardry. with a minimum of disturbance Maybe that's a standard you to blood cells. So it can be used should apply to the work you'll safely much longer than con- be doing. Whether or not you ventional lung machines. Days ever work at General Electric. instead of hours. Because, as our engineers That extra time may be what will tell you, it's not so much a doctor needs to repair the de- what you do that counts. It's fective heart of a child. To open what it means.