Dick van Lente edited a new book:
Prophets of Computing: Visions of Society Transformed by Computing
When electronic digital computers first appeared after World War II, they appeared as a revolutionary force. Business management, the world of work, administrative life, the nation state, and soon enough everyday life were expected to change dramatically with these machines’ use. Ever since, diverse prophecies of computing have continually emerged, through to the present day. As computing spread beyond the US and UK, such prophecies emerged from strikingly different economic, political, and cultural conditions. This volume explores how these expectations differed, assesses unexpected commonalities, and suggests ways to understand the divergences and convergences. This book examines thirteen countries, based on source material in ten different languages—the effort of an international team of scholars. In addition to analyses of debates, political changes, and popular speculations, we also show a wide range of pictorial representations of “the future with computers.”
CONTENTS
Introduction: Prophets and Narratives | Man-Machine Dialogues: Computer Representations and
Appropriations in the Soviet Union and the United States | Microcomputers for the Masses: Jack Tramiel and
Commodore | Banking the Future of Banking: Savings Banks and the Digital Age in East and West Germany |
The United Kingdom: Going it Alone? | French National Paths within a Global Computing Market | Dutch
Prophets: Pragmatic Optimism and Suppressed Fears | Computing the New China: The Founding Fathers,
the Maoist Way, and Neoliberalism, 1945-1986 | Digital India: Swadeshi-Computing in India since 1947
| Computers in the Shadow of Communism: The Polish People’s Republic | Dreams of the Vanquished:
Narratives in Postwar Japan | Computopia and its Discontents: Dual Narratives in South Korea | Big Brother in
New Zealand: Anticipating the Computer | Conclusions: Patterns of Prophecy – Needs, Ambitions, and Doubts
More info: Prophets of Computing:Visions of Society Transformed by Computing | ACM Books