Black Hole

The Black Hole

by Alex Heatley

Every Solidarity center had piles and piles of paper...everyone was eating paper and a policeman was at the door. Now all you have to do is bend a disk. -- an anonymous member of the then outlawed Polish trade union, Solidarity, commenting on the benefits of using computers in support of their movement.

Many people seem to think that computers are a modern panacea, that they make life easier for us all. Well, I'm afraid that's only partly true...

For example, in the 60s, a Master's student writing a thesis would generally write it by hand and have it typed up, making sure to use three carbons for the copies required. If a page had a mistake, the whole page had to be retyped. Diagrams and graphs were drawn by hand.

Now the process generally involves computers. The thesis is typed in using a word processor. Because the text is stored electronically, corrections can be made without having to retype a whole page. Diagrams and charts can also be created using the computer and merged into the final printout. Typing and corrections are easier, and often quicker, and the results look a whole lot better -- most theses now look as if they were printed books.

However, the work of coming up with the words to go on the page hasn't changed a bit. All that has really changed is the mechanical process of getting those words onto the paper. Unfortunately, this mechanical process has become more complicated.

Anyone with a few minutes instruction can operate a typewriter, even with only two fingers going hunt and peck. Face that same person with a computer masquerading as a word processor and you've got problems.

Now they have to worry about what this "A:" flashing on the screen means. They've got to understand about exotic things like files and how to store them, and how to get a printer to cooperate. It's no longer as simple as sitting down and pounding away at a typewriter.

Computers are too general purpose for that. The same computer that you use to type your letters can also help you with your accounts. It can run a fancy videogame or play music or perform complicated statistical analyses.

But computers aren't general enough either. They don't understand that humans can say things they don't mean ("what do you mean it deleted that file!"). Or make mistakes ("I didn't mean to hit delete!").

So we adjust ourselves to what we think are their failures. And that's what a computer literate person is, someone who has learnt how to work in such a way so as not to confuse the computer.

Anyone can do it, all it requires is thinking about a problem in a certain way. The people who create computers and the programs they run are working hard to create computers that are harder to confuse; computers that understand more clearly what we want them to do, rather than what we tell them to do.

(Alex Heatley works in computing and combats a deep-seated fear of computers by cultivating a masochistic personality.)