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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: Book Review: "Freedom's Edge: The Computer Threat to Society"
Message-ID: <813@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Nov-86 16:54:37 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.813
Posted: Mon Nov  3 16:54:37 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Nov-86 05:57:37 EST
Reply-To: hplabs!rutgers!meccts!meccsd!mecc!sewilco
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
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Approved: taylor@hplabs
Reference: <800@hplabsc.UUCP>


This article is from rutgers!meccts!meccsd!mecc!sewilco
 and was received on Sat Nov 1 18:16:28 1986
 
>"Freedom's Edge: The Computer Threat to Society", by Milton Wessel,
>  Addison-Weseley Publishing, 1974.
...
>     "Eighth Commandment.  The failure of a discrete unit of a computer 
>        economic grid must result in immediate disconnect from the grid
>        without unreasonable harm to or interference with the rest of the
>        system."
>
>This is referring to not only Point-of-Sale (POS) systems but to networks 
>like the Automatic Teller System (ATM).  Wessel points out the problems
>with stores that have their registers as POS systems tied directly to
>inventory and thence directly to the distributors or wholesalers.  It
>becomes the old antitrust problem that has always plagued modern business.
>...

The other commandments mostly seem oriented toward information banks,
while the Eighth and your summary seem more like business transaction
systems.  If a company connects its inventory system "directly" to its
distributors or wholesalers, I expect it would be more flexible than
implied by the phrase "the old antitrust problem".  If a purchasing
system were that highly automated, I would expect it to often know about
several suppliers and scatter the orders as policy considers "best".
If a supplier's computer fails, its transactions would not reach it and
action would be taken, whether automatic or manual, to order through
another communication path or get the items from another source.

Scot E. Wilcoxon    Minn Ed Comp Corp  {quest,dicome,meccts}!mecc!sewilco