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From: mhnadel@gryphon.CTS.COM (Miriam Nadel)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: "Personal" computing
Message-ID: <464@hptsug2.HP.COM>
Date: 26 Aug 88 23:01:40 GMT
Sender: taylor@hptsug2.HP.COM
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 40
Approved: taylor@hplabs

Doug Pardee writes:

> I disagree.  The "personal computer" is a solution searching for a problem.
>
> There seems to be little that a computer can do to simplify my current duties
> and chores -- a personal computer can't cook my meals, wash my dishes and
> clothes, dust my home, ponder political and social issues, fill my car with
> gas or take it to the lube shop, or drive me to work.  Heaven knows that if a
> computer could ease my duties and chores, I'd have put one to work long ago.
>
> The bottom line is that my personal (non-work) life revolves around activity,
> not information.  It's labor intensive.  Outside of work, I have little need
> for an information processing, storage, and communication device.  What
> needs I do have are already handled just fine by pencil, paper, calculator,
> and telephone.

I guess this depends on how you live your personal (non-work) life.  I find
a computer very useful for organizing my personal life.  No the computer
can't cook my meals but it can help me find a particular recipe.  (I
haven't typed recipes into the computer but I've indexed them in a database,
so I know which cookbook or file to look in.)  No it can't do my chores but
it can help me schedule my chores.  No, it can't ponder political or social
isues for me, but I tend to think best in writing and I can certainly
organize my thoughts more easily using a word processor than using scraps
of paper.

I need a lot of information processing and storage in my personal life.  I
keep inventories of household possessions (which includes a lot of
collectibles) for example.  The computer is invaluable when I want to find
out quickly whether I have the May 1952 issue of Ellery Queen and don't want
to go to my rented storage space to find out.  It's helpful when I compose
letters on personal business - letters which I often need to retain a copy
of.  

It isn't that I couldn't get by without the computer - I did for years.  But
I was drowning in paper and it was increasingly hard to organize.  I still have
file boxes and paper records but at least now I can find the information I
needed to keep on paper.

Miriam Nadel