Proceedings of the December 4-6, 1962, fall joint computer conference on - AFIPS '62 (Fall)

Abstract

The theme of the 1962 Fall Joint Computer Conference is Computers in the Space Age. Today there is a two-way street in which computing equipment has contributed vitally to the success of space age technology, but the space-age demands have had their major effects on the design of computers. Of these we can readily discern three outstanding results: (1) development of more efficient interfacing between man and machine, (2) radical reduction of the size of systems, and (3) the maturing of the theory and implementation of cooperative systems, including multi-point operating complexes. Naturally these achievements are irrevocably to be reflected in the stationary equipment that benefits business and science. We already know that for the purposes of the Space Age, computing equipment is to provide facility for command-decision and for control of a new order of complexity. But we are just becoming aware of the products of this progress. The social implications of advances in the precise selection of information via recursive interplay between man and machine---though barely perceptible at the present time---are rapidly assuming major influence on the structure of the near future. Altogether, the interaction of the space age and computer technologies has brought about a rich growth in new and potent national resources. Indeed, the record of the United States in the field of information and data processing systems is pre-eminent in the present world. It is helping therefore very directly to give us pre-eminence in space.