Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: marsh@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Ralph J. Marshall)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Effect of Computers on Society at Large
Message-ID: <1760@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 25 Mar 88 01:41:17 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, Mass.
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

It seems to me that this group should also be addressing the problems
faced by people who are not computer literate at any level, and thus
are in severe danger of becoming part of a permanent underclass in our
society.  I think it will become increasingly difficult to get a decent
job in this country if you are unable to even USE a computer, let alone
program one.  Yet this is the same country where we have unbeliveable
rates of high-school drop-outs who are often unable to even read
English well enough to understand on-screen prompts and instructions.

An example of this occurred last night (althoug it was admittedly 
not typical of the main problem I forsee).  I was in line at an ATM
waiting for the man at the head of the line to complete his transaction.
He was apparently a recent Asian immigrant who spoke fairly good English
(certainly better than I speak any Asian languages :-)) but seemed unable
to understand the prompts to withdraw cash.  The guy behind him helped
him through the process, but it made me wonder about the future for
people who are _already_ short of skills needed to find a job.  What will
happen to them as everyday life requires more technical understanding,
and what will happen to our society as a larger and larger section of
the populace is disenfranchised ?  These are serious problems caused at
least in part by the wide-spread use of computers, and I don't have any
obvious answers.  Anybody else have some encouraging words, or suggestions
as to what might be done to avoid dooming large numbers of people to 
menial labor or unemployment in a workplace with fewer and fewer
'traditional' jobs ?

Ralph