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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard
From: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: time to use your brains
Message-ID: <657@loral.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Nov-84 14:40:10 EST
Article-I.D.: loral.657
Posted: Sat Nov 17 14:40:10 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Nov-84 05:22:43 EST
References: <1668@ucf-cs.UUCP> <677@gloria.UUCP>
Reply-To: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego, CA
Lines: 40
Summary: 

Just a little theory...

Noticing how kids seem to take to computing readily, while adults approach
them with all kinds of trepidation, I remember the movies and TV shows
we saw through the fifties up to the early eighties that included computers.
As I recall, computers in these presentations were always large mainframes,
towering over white-frocked, intellectual types who spouted tech-gibberish
while the ponderous racks behind them vibrated and roared, and myriads of
lights pulsed (always, lots of lights)!

Even non-fiction presentations of computers tended to dramatize their
power and complexity ("...and this machine here can perform nineteen
zillion calculations every second, and make coffee at the same time, folks!")
Little wonder then that many people flatly assumed that they were
unfathomable wonders totally beyond any hope of comprehension, and that
therefore, they are a threat of sorts.  It's a pretty fundamental human
trait to fear things that cannot be understood and controlled.

Even when an obviously small and simple Apple, TRS-80, IBM or whatever
(I have an original Altair, for those who remember that far back into
history) sits before them on the table, the overwhelming stigma of the word
"computer" creates some surprising blocks.

Seems to me that one of the tricks to bringing the computer into the
realm occupied by the automobile, television, VCR and Mr. Coffee in
the minds of Joe and Jane Average, is to point out the false imagery they've
developed and show that their home computer really doesn't do much of anything
exceptional - just a small set of simple functions, very fast.


-- 

[     I am not a stranger, but a friend you haven't met yet     ]

Ray Simard
Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
{ucbvax, ittvax!dcdwest}!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard

...Though we may sometimes disagree,
   You are still a friend to me!