The computer and you a proposed new course on the impact of computers on society

Abstract

That the applications of computer systems are having an increasing impact on the lives of people at present as well as for the foreseeable future has become commonly accepted to almost everyone, particularly to the citizens of highly industrialized countries such as the United States. Creating and implementing means for educating people to cope with the issues and problems raised or promised by these information processing systems is of importance especially in any form of democracy. This is particularly true since little accurate and detailed knowledge of the larger problem has been widely disseminated. One often hears people express ignorance or misconceptions concerning the particular issues with some commonly mentioned pervasive fear of consequences for people from computer systems in the future. Something must be done!Large segments of the populace must be given adequate bases for decision-making insofar as the applications of computer systems promise to affect the present and future. This paper proposes a university course as a realistic and practical approach to the creation of these bases in an important segment of the population—college undergraduates.