Computers—the machines we think with

Computers—
THE MACHINES WE THINK WITH
D. S. HALACY, Jr.
HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, EVANSTON, AND LONDON
COMPUTERS—THE MACHINES WE THINK WITH. Copyright © 1962, by Daniel S. Halacy, Jr. Printed in the United States of America. All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, N.Y.
Library of Congress catalog card number: 62-14564
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COMPUTERS—THE MACHINES WE THINK WITH
While you are reading this sentence, an electronic computer is performing 3 million mathematical operations! Before you read this page, another computer could translate it and several others into a foreign language. Electronic “brains” are taking over chores that include the calculation of everything from automobile parking fees to zero hour for space missile launchings.
Despite bitter winter weather, a recent conference on computers drew some 4,000 delegates to Washington, D.C.; indicating the importance and scope of the new industry. The 1962 domestic market for computers and associated equipment is estimated at just under $3 billion, with more than 150,000 people employed in manufacture, operation, and maintenance of the machines.
In the short time since the first electronic computer made its appearance, these thinking machines have made such fantastic strides in so many different directions that most of us are unaware how much our lives are already being affected by them. Banking, for example, employs complex machines that process checks and handle accounts so much faster than human bookkeepers that they do more than an hour’s work in less than thirty seconds.
General Electric Co., Computer Dept. Programmer at console of computer used in electronic processing of bank checking accounts.