Whose factory madethis house?Westinghouse.You bet we're hiring.

If you can't wait for the recruiter,write today to George Garvey,Westinghouse Education Center,Pittsburgh, Pa. 15221. An equalopportunity employer.

FEATURES PAGE

On the Rehumanization of Society 6(Winner of $1000. 1971 Cooley Essay Contest)

by Rudy Engholm

Artificial Intelligence 8by Jack Howes

Computer Technology in the USSR 13an interview with Dr. J. D. Ryderby Don Willemsen

CISSR 17by Dave Klingman

DEPARTMENTS

Editorial 3

Letters to the Editor 9

Puzzle Contest 9

Engrineers 20

STAFF

Vince Rybicki Editor

Don Willemsen Associate Editor

Bob Norby Features Editor

Pat Sharp Humor and Art Editor

Milton Horst Photography Editor

Jack Howes Contributing Editor

David Klingman Contributing Editor

Rudy Engholm Contributing Editor

Gloria Watters Business Manager

Al Hoffman Advisor

The 8 Hour Work Week ? ? ? ?Off hand it may seem an impossibility, but if we can

stabilize our population growth and solve the pollution

problem, it is an almost certainty; however, fusion power

is an absolute prerequisite for this to occur. Fusion is

clean, produces far fewer radioactive wastes than fission

and is a virtually unlimited power source. Five cents can

extract all the deuterium in one gallon of water. This

amount of deuterium has the energy potential of 300 gallons

of gasoline. Three hundred times x-many gallons of water in

the ocean equals an enormous amount of power.

Fusion power combined with continued cybernetic ad-

vances could easily free man from much repetitive toil.

Eight hours of work per week per person may be sufficient

due to the vastly increased productivity such a combination

would bring. An almost Utopian society could be ours by the

early part of the next century, but just hypothesizing won't

make it so. Congress must appropriate more money to fusion

research in this country if we are to have fusion power by

the end of the century. More people must be made aware of

the necessity for greater spending in this area. The 8 hour

work week can be ours but only increased cybernetic and

fusion technology can make it possible.

energyThe energy to keep straining toward your chosen goal—and evenas you attain it, look forward to the ones beyond.

The energy to explore, evaluate, create, bring needed changes.

Energy to burn, figuratively—that wealth possessed by theyoung, in mind no less than body.

Energy to burn, literally, because ideas—freedom, equality, well-being,conservation of our natural environment—must be turned intorealities—food, shelter, warmth, access, economic independenceand the physical means to accomplish our goals. Atlantic Richfieldis an energy company—in all these ways. One of the nation'sthirty leading industrial corporations, and one of the ten companiesproducing most of our energy needs, with a strong positionin diversified chemical products as well as in oil and gas.

A young company still extending its boundaries as it joins theefforts and resources of the Atlantic, the Richfield and nowthe Sinclair Oil Companies. Aggressive and imaginative in management.Flexible in organization and operation. Open to fresh thinking.Responsible in outlook. Offering new opportunities to financial

and systems analysts, accountants, auditors, engineers, geologists,

geophysicists, sales representatives, agronomists and programmers.

We invite your interest. See our representative on campusor your Placement Director.

How are you onthe Mow-through?

The sure sign of a crack skeet shot is a sudden puff of claydust against the sky. But champions share another mark that's

almost as easy to spot. It's follow through.

Like the top-flight skeet shooter illustrated here, our tapered roller bearingand steel engineers get results because they follow through, too.

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a $221 million expansion and modernization program?

Then write to our Manager of College Relations. And tell him you'd like to takea shot at it. The Timken Company, Canton, Ohio 44706. Timken" bearings

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An Equal Opportunity Employer (m/f).

ON THE REHUMANIZATION OF SOCIETY

A BRIEF HISTORYAmerica, on her one hundred and ninety-fifth

birthday is in the midst of an identity crisis.After an infancy in the rural agricultural era andpuberty in the metropolitan industrial era, she isentering the megalopolitan cybernated era ofadolescence—suspicious of her past and uncertainof her future. Right at the moment she hasretreated to lick her wounds, to recoup, to digestand to introspect.

Why the sudden pain of insecurity andconfusion? One possible answer is that almost allof our study and planning and actions have beenbased on the premise that the future willresemble the past. We set up a social system inwhich the vast majority of members acceptedcertain assumptions about the nature of reality,of events, of right and wrong. We carefullyplanted the values of democracy, liberty, justiceand freedom for all in our children hoping to seethose values flourish. We taught our childrenscience and reason and rationalism. They learnedtheir lessons well. When they looked aroundthemselves they saw tyranny, bondage, injusticeand freedom for few. In their blind rage theyburned Watts, Newark, and Detroit. Theybombed and rioted. Many of them rejected thematerialism of their parents as a kind of falsesecurity.

After a decade of confrontation politics, thereare many confused, uprooted people wanderingaimlessly about the battlefield amidst the rubbleof former values, and America has not been thesame. Her people have begun to seriouslyquestion the belief that money brings happiness,war brings peace, and change brings progress.

THE PROBLEMSThis brief history is, of course, a grossly

oversimplified explanation of our inability todecide what our future should be and how weshould get there. You cannot say what ourcollective future should be anymore than I can.But if I suggest a thesis and you propose anantithesis, perhaps we can arrive at a synthesis ofwhat should constitute our national priorities andwhat kind of society can act on these priorities.

It is impossible to even define nationalpriorities unless there is a national goal. Forwi thout a goal, everything is equallyimpor tan t -o r for that matter, equallymeaningless. And a collective national goal is hardto agree upon because as individuals, we disagreeabout the facts and the interpretation of facts,trends and the interpretation of trends, theconstraints imposed by the environment! thenature of man, and what constitutes a desirableworld to live in.1

So we start at the beginning: Our national goalis to enhance/affirm the dignity/value of eachindividual and improve the quality of life foreach individual in the society as a whole.

Although it is easy enough to state this as aplatitude there are immediate and ominousrumblings on the horizon. Right away there arethose who would analyze our society assumingthe existence of an objective reality—the systemsmen, the game strategists at Rand Laboratoriesand the like. They assume that this externalobjective reality is something that can beunderstood and controlled and that theirconsequent task is to develop better methods ofmeasurement and control. Then there are menlike Carl Rogers, ee cummings, Paolo Soleri andothers who believe that reality is subjective—theworld tends to become what it is believed to be.

The magnitude and the nature of the obstaclespreventing us from attaining our national goal aresuch that neither view is sufficient in itself. It isessential that both modes of viewing realityremain in constant tension, and that bothcontribute to the task of designing the future.2

This is a crucial point; if we regard individuals as"black boxes" alone, their personal needs willnever be met. Yet if we do not view certainproblems in a societal context, they will never besolved.

While I do not believe in the self-perfectibilityof man, I see at least two major ways in whichwe can reach for this goal of human dignity foreach individual. One is by recognizing the needfor flexibility in our society and the other is thenecessity of controlling technology. While it ismore convenient to discuss them one at a time,they will have to be considered and implementedsimultaneously.

THE FIRST PRIORITYThe f i rst great p r i o r i t y - f l ex ib i l i t y - i s

unfortunately too general to be practical. Whatare some of the specific ways we can increase theresilience of society? Most of these seem to boildown to political changes. This does not come astoo great a surprise if you consider politics as aglue that holds society together.

In this age of technology it is especiallyimportant that the government be able torespond to changes in society at least as rapidlyas those changes occur. To a large extent, this isone of the shortcomings of our government thattoday's college students find hardest to accept"The present generation of undergraduatestudents has not experienced a major scientificbreakthrough which significantly altered theirlives. They have experienced or caused socialchanges galore, but radio and television seem

eternal to them, always were and always will be.Jet airplanes, electric kitchens and computerswere 'ancient' when they woke to the use ofreason . . . The days before Alan Shepard soaredinto space (no irony intended—my note) are asfoggy to today's undergraduates as the feats ofBuck Rogers were unreal to their parents.Nothing seems impossible in the world they haveknown. No wonder they are impatient in a worldwhere millions are starving, where wars continuewithout clear purpose, where racism is winked atand government slowly strangles the freedom ofan uninvolved electorate. They see no reason formisery or any delay: America abounds in moneyand talent."3

If government does truly exist to serve thepeople rather than its own perpetuation it mustallow dissent. Without dissent there can be nohope of government being responsive to the needsof society given the time scale our society isgeared to.

French critic Jean-Francois Revel, author of NiMarx Ni Jesus (Neither Marx Nor Jesus)maintains that the United States is to be thebirthplace of the second world revolution. Thefirst was the advent of egalitarian societies andthe second will have as its goal the establishmentof "economic and social equality by and throughcultural and personal liberty; the guarantee ofsecurity through the participation of all inpolitical decisions and eventually the creation ofa world government." He credits this toA m e r i c a ' s r e v o l u t i o n a r y method ofchange—dissent. As evidence he cites the case ofthe Vietnam War; "For the first time in worldhistory, a foreign war . . . is meeting with strongopposition within the country that is waging thewar. . . the transition from internal democracy todemocracy in external affairs represents a giantstep."4

And if the government is to act upon and notagainst dissent, then it must allow a free press.The recent attempts of government to gain anoose to hang over the press through its wiretapand right-to-subpoena-journalists'-notes cases areominous signs that it is not willing to allowdissent a totally free voice.

Not only must dissent be allowed, but a trulyrepresentative government must be maintained.Somehow the checks and balances which werecarefully designed into the Constitution toprevent concentration of power have fallen intodisrepair. Congress must insist on itsConstitutional right to declare war and refuse tolet quasi-legal executive orders negate that role.

Within Congress itself a new look must betaken at the seniority system and the distribution°f power. If two senators are elected-a freshmanand one with "tenure"-legally they eachrepresent the same number of people. Yet thePower wielded by the senior senator's

constituents may be far greater than that of thejunior senator's constituents by virtue of theunequal power distribution between senators.Legalized gerrymandering?

We must also take a look at the role the lobbysystem plays in American politics. The senioritysystem and lobbies seem to exist in a symbioticrelationship-each helping each other. Yet neitheris particularly representative. Supporting aneffective lobby takes money and a great deal ofit. Where does this money come from? SomehowI find it a difficult notion to accept that therights of the corporation are inherently morevaluable than the rights of the individual becausecorporations can pay to safeguard those rights.While a total ban on lobbying would not bedesirable or enforceable, an equal distribution ofcongressional power might go a long way towardrestoring a semblance of equal representation anda balance between corporate and public interests.

One of the duties the government hastraditionally shirked since the advent of bigbusiness is trust-busting. There are discouraginglyfew anti-trust lawyers and indictments consideringthe effect corporations have upon the individual.It is just as possible for the rights of an individualto be denied by an act of corporate disregard orexploitation as it is for those rights to be deniedby an invading enemy. We maintain an elaboratemilitary organization to protect us from thelatter, but virtually deny the possibility of theformer.

Another massive obstacle to flexibility withinthe government is the elaborate system ofoverlapping bureaucratic jurisdictions that hasevolved. In a Cooley essay paper last year, BradBehrman reported that America has a' ' h o d g e p o d g e o f 8 0 , 0 0 0 l o c a lgovernments—villages, townships, counties, portauthorities, sewer districts, and special purposeagencies."5 Incredible amounts of waste,duplication, and friction result from such asystem. Add to this the multitude of federal andstate agencies and it is more than mildlysurprising that our country runs at all.

It is hard to suggest a realistic alternativebecause of the magnitude of the problem. Butperhaps a move toward greater politicalecumenicalism between local governments couldlead to consolidation and eventually towardregional authorities based on local needs. Forinstance, a single Great Lakes Authority (withauthority, of course) would be able to respondfar more effectively to the total social, ecological,and economic needs of the Great Lakes Regionthan the hundreds of local municipalities dottingthe shoreline or the mammoth bureaucracycentered in Washington.

Admittedly there are severe problems here,too. It is a very real objection that individualsand municipalities would get trampled on in the

(continued on page 18)

ArtificialIntellegence

What'sIt All About?

By Jack Howes

This article will be a brief summary of the stateof the art and come previews of future attractions.Computers have been becoming more and more apart of our life but we haven't seen anythingyet . . . computers are going to have a very pro-found effect upon us.

Let us now look at some of the things beingdone to increase the intelligence of automata. Onemajor step forward was the development of highlevel language, i.e. computer input that resemblesEnglish. Building on the higher languages (Fortran,Algol, Cobol, etc.) can produce specializedlanguages that are extremely readable; however, allof these special languages have a singular purposeof developing programs that contribute to the in-telligence of a computer in a particular complexproblem. Here we see one of the main problemsfaced in developing artificial intelligence in auto-mata. We can place contributions into two cate-gories, general programs with ability to performtasks in a wide variety of areas and programs whichexhibit expertise in particular problem areas. Atpresent both of these goals haven't been ac-complished in one computer program.

We are seeing specialized programs that havegreat amounts of skill and sophistication comingcloser and closer to individual use. This is whattechnicians call time sharing and programmers callinteractive or responsive modes of usage. Largenumbers of terminals can be accomodated by onecomputer without the person at the terminalrealizing he doesn't have the full attention of thecomputer. Advances in this area are limited only tothe developing of more convenient means of inter-communication.

Cathode ray scopes are a good step forward butare certainly not the ultimate in man/machineinteraction. In the near future we should see somereally exotic devices for communicating with com-puters. For example, already in use are terminalsthat give stock quotations (found in all brokeragehouses), devices to convert analog information(voltages, currents, temperatures, stresses, weights,etc.) to digital information, and all the graphicalterminals being experimented with today.

In the background of these various user orienteddevices are the programs that make our computersappear to be intelligent. Unfortunately, these pro-grams can achieve skill in only very limitedproblems domains.

There are game playing programs which areprobably the most popular and recognized area ofartificial intelligence. Game programs also presentsome of the most difficult problem areas to achieveskill in. There is an extremely good checker pro-gram that was written by A. L. Samuel who worksfor I.B.M. which is probably the most skillful of allpresent artificial intelligence programs. There areonly a few grandmasters who can beat this checkersprogram. Chess programs have not been as suc-cessful, most are rated as beginners.

Some of the more exotic research deals withrobots. There are working models at a few researchcenters such as M.I.T. and Stanford, They haveprogressed far enough so that the machine can rolldown a hall lined with rooms and find particularobjects in a room. There is also a great amount ofresearch being done toward digitizing and theninterpreting voice patterns; however, there is stilla long way to go in this area . . . but you haven'tseen anything yet!

Puzzle Page

A five dollar prize will be awarded to the firstundergraduate engineering student to turn in thecorrect solutions in Rm. 144, E.B.

1. Two similar triangles with integeral sides havetwo of their sides the same. The third side differsby 387. What are the lengths of the sides?

* * *2. A book was found missing some of its pages.The sum of the page numbers of the consecutivemissing pages in 8,656. What are the missing pages?

* * *

3. A spider eats three flies a day. Until he fills hisquota, he has an even chance of catching any flythat attempts to pass. A fly is about to make theattempt. What are the chances of survival, giventhat five flies have already made the attempt today?

* * *

4. There are N points on a circle. A straight linesegment is drawn between each pair of points.How many intersections are there within the circleif no three lines are concurrect? Into how manysections will the circle be divided?

* * *

5. In Byzantine basketball there are 35 scoreswhich are impossible for a team to total, one ofthem being 58. Naturally a free throw is worth lessthan a field goal. What is the point value of each?

LAST ISSUE'S WINNER: Fred Larner, CPS Sen.

Last issue's answers.

1- (4/64) (27/63) + (12/63) (25/63) + (20/64)(23/63) + (28/64) (21/630) = 13/36

* * *

2. 31. The terms of the sequence are represen-tations of 16 in different bases, from 16 to 2.

* * *

3. Let x be the radius of the larger circle, thenx(x-9) = (x-5)(x-5). x = 25The diameters of the circles are 50 and 41 inches.

* * *

4. All of the triangular fields are the same area, 9acres. The area of the center triangle isV~sTs~̂ T) (s - b) ( s - c) where a = V7675 = V7U,c = VT8, and s = (a + b + c) /2. The farmer owned100 acres.

Dear Don,

I want to take this opportunity to congratulateyou on the outstanding latest issue of the SpartanEngineer. I particularly liked the editorial, "WhyInterview?", and believe you have provided stu-dents in the College of Engineering with someinformation that will be very helpful to them intheir career planning. Keep up the good work.

Very truly yours,

John D. ShingletonDirector of Placement

Revolutionary Engineering

We are interested in the (still embryonic)"Counter-Technology" branch of the "Counter-Culture movement. We feel that the present move-ment needs people from scientific, mathematicaland technical backgrounds just as badly as scien-tists, engineers, and technicians need the socialconsciousness which this movement reflects. It isour belief that communes, from the point of viewof their own survival, must begin with the most ad-vanced technologies evolved by the presentcapitalist society and begin to remold them tocongruence with a different totality of socialrelations.

We are presently working with several groupsplanning to form communities and we are activelyexploring possible ecologically compatible, etc.technologies which could be utilized by suchcommunities.

Contact: AQUARIUS PROJECTP.O. Box 4013Berkeley, California 94704

That cylinder, the size ofa pea, is a building block of allspace-age electronics gear.Soon millions will put more zipin your mail. And nickel'shelping make it happen.

The U.S. Postal Service is busily streamliningitself with some of the most sophisticated electronichardware in-or out of-this world.

Optical scanners to decipher addresses in over 90different type fonts. Computers. Coders. High-speedprinters. Giant, 15-ton electro-mechanical sorters.

By 1975, this equipment should begin to slashpostal operating expenses as much as $500 millionyear. And make a whopping improvement in service

At the core of the new machines-and of businessmedical, aerospace, and other advanced electronichardware-are millions of spidery gadgets like the onlyin our photo. Anywhere from 29 to 100 percent nickelthey're hermetically sealed packages for miniaturizedcomponents. Most house tiny chips of silicon coverswith transistors, resistors, diodes, and complex cir-cuitry-complete systems for storing, amplifying,otherwise harnessing faint electronic impulses.

The nickel in the packages helps because it has

good thermal and chemical compatibility with sili-on. Because it enhances formability, bonding, andelectrical conductivity. And because corrosive humid-ty won't faze it. (Nor snow, nor rain, nor heat, norgloom of night, for that matter.)

Insignificant as the little cylinder looks, it tookover 4,000,000 pounds of nickel to make enough ofthem f o r the electronics industry last year.

J u s t as our metal is a helper, so InternationalNickel is a helper. We assist dozens of different indus-

tries all over the world in the use of metals. We offertechnical information. And the benefit of our experi-ence. Often, Inco metallurgists are actually able toanticipate alloys that will be needed in the future, and

to set about creating them.This kind of helpfulness, we figure, will encour-

age our customers to keep coming back to us.And that helps all around.The International Nickel Company, Inc., New

York, N.Y. The International Nickel Company ofCanada, Limited, Toronto. International NickelLimited. London, England.

The small space big sound.About the only thing missing in the average

guy's pad is space. And good stereo.That's because it's hard to pack a big stereo

sound in a small space. And big jobs take up somuch room you have to throw out half your li-brary or pile it on the floor.

Which is why you should check out the newSylvania ACS 12WH. Big sound. Small size.

Big sound from two globe speakers you canswivel and turn to get the best stereo balance foryour room. Each one has a four-inch extended-range air suspension speaker that sounds asgood as conventional ones two sizes larger. Yetthey're small enough to fit on the shelf right nextto "War and Peace."

The solid state AM/FM/FM Stereo receiverfits on a shelf, too. It's less than a foot deep andonly five inches high. But it's still big on features.Like a Field Effect Transistor FM front end.Ceramic Filter I.F. Strip. Fifty watts of peakmusic power.

If space is really tight, just stack the turntableright on top of the receiver. It'll work great anyplace you put it because it's a BSR Micro-miniwith a diamond stylus.

Put it all together and it'll fit on one two-footshelf. For about $200.*

How's that for no-space age living?'Manufacturer's suggested retail price for Model ACS12WH is $199.95.

Computer Technologyin the USSR

In the summer of 1970 Dr. J. D. Ryder was partof a team of U.S. scientists and engineers sponsoredby the State Department and I.E.E.E. He visitedthe USSR and some of its electronics and computerfactories and institutes as part of a scientific ex-change program. Here are some of the views Dr.Ryder brought back on computer technology inthe USSR.

Don: Who is ahead in computer technology,the US or the USSR and by howmuch?

Dr. Ryder: We are definitely ahead of theRussians in computer technology. Weare ahead by at least several years to acomputer generation; although, theRussians claim to have two very capa-ble computers hidden somewhereunderground.

Don: What are the Russian computers like?

Dr. Ryder: Their best, the BECM-6 which iscomparable in arithmetic ability toour CDC 3600 is slow and very bulky.For example, their key punchers ap-pear to have a large typewritermounted on a high metal table whichis filled with hardware. There is noautomatic verifier on their keypunchesand the operator must read what isprinted on every card leading to manyerrors. While we were there, theRussians were only beginning to de-cide what type of system to devise tohave multiple access to their com-puters. Their consoles had nixytube

readout which is limited to only a fewspecific characters and is nol as versa-tile as our cathode ray readout.

The BECM-6 had six to eight storagedrums which were 18" in diuneteirunning at approximately 850 rpmwhich is comparable to our technologyon the 1LLIAD-1 in 1(>54. This alsoindicated the computers low storagecapabilities. The printer was very inef-ficient, printing only six lines perminute. The Russians were also just in-stalling a plotter they purchased fromFrance.

Don: Do you think the Russians could gainfrom our technology, or would it up-set their system by selling them com-puters manufactured in the US?

Dr. Ryder: First of all, the Russians say, "Thereis nothing to learn from the West."Until recently they would not use anyof our technology made available tothem due to loss of face with theirown people. Now, however, they arebeginning to buy magnetic tape andtape units from the West. The inabilityof the Russian chemists to producegood magnetic tape is one of the mainreasons for their low storage in com-puters. As a matter of fact, the com-puter institute of Novo Sibirsk usedalmost all paper punch tape.

Don: Do the Russians use semiconductorsand integrated circuits in their com-puters?

Dr. Ryder: The Russians are 1 - 3 years behindthe US in semiconductor technology.Their diode and transistor facilities arenot as good as ours and thereforetheir semiconductors are not as good.

Don: Are computers used in factories or foraccounting or for stock purposes?

Dr. Ryder: Not very often. The only computer wesaw in use while in Russia was at asemiconductor factory. The mainreason many places do not have com-puters or are slow in getting them isthe great deal of bureaucracy in theSoviet Union.

Don: Do you think computer technology inthe US made it possible for us to reachthe moon before the Russians.

Dr. Ryder: Yes, they have no backup computerslike the US and, being able to look at aspacecraft, their instruments were verysparse. It looked like they didn't haveany computers on board.

Marginal land:the same area

raises 30 chickensor 1 ton of catfish

The farmers at a "Kombinat" (collectivefarm) in Nasice Breznica, Yugoslavia arereally making their acreage pay off.

They flooded it, and are raising good oldAmerican channel catfish.

About three years ago, FMC visited theKombinat as part of a state department-approved agricultural development program.At the time, the Yugoslavians were raisingcarp in huge man-made ponds covering mar-ginal land—land not best suited for crops."Why not switch to farming catfish?" weasked. "They yield twice the harvest. Andthey bring a premium price in the market-place."

The Yugoslavians said, "Good idea—wheredo we get the fish?"

That's when our work began. We con-tracted to ship them 21,000 fingerlings, 110brood stock, and 120,000 newly hatched"fry," knowing live fish shipment mortalityrates often reached 50%.

To do this job, special FMC containerswere developed to fit into the baggage com-partment of a Pan Am 707. They maintainedprecise life support levels of oxygen, carbondioxide, ammonium, and controlled thermallevels, too. During four 50 hour trips fromSt. Louis to Yugoslavia we lost just six fish.A record.

More importantly, Yugoslavia has moreproductive "farmland."

Fish farming, or aquaculture, is an exten-sion of FMC agricultural programs. Thecompany is capable of building ponds, sup-plying pond cleaning and pond operatingequipment, building fish processing and can-ning plants, as well as containers for ship-ping fish by air.

We also make printing presses, chemicals,snowmobiles, rayon cord, and several thou-sand other diversified products.

To discover what else we're doing to makelife livable, see your placement director forour publication, "Careers with FMC." Orwrite FMC Corporation, P. O. Box 760, SanJose, California 95106. We are an equal op-portunity employer.

Water makes many things grow and flourish, in-cluding your career. That's why engineers, land-scape architects, environmentalist/ecologists,economists, planners and many other modernprofessionals have a chance to do big things—inevery sense—by launching careers with theCorps of Engineers.

The Corps is responsible for overall planning andmanagement of our nation's principal water re-sources. The question you will confront is no lessthan: "How can we improve the quality of lifein these United States as it relates to water?"

When you find the answers, we'll help you putthem to work. This unique challenge involvesboth your own technical education and talentsand a total commitment on our part that the

development and management of water resourcesmust be balanced with protection of the naturalenvironment.

Our career opportunities are not concerned withwater resources alone, however. Modern con-struction, engineering design, systems analysis,computer technology, R&D, topography—theseare just a few of the other areas where you canbuild a career of total involvement, achievementand satisfaction with the world's largest engineer-ing/construction organization.

Eager to share a real challenge? This is theopportunity you're looking for. Write today for fullinformation. CORPS OF ENGINEERS, Departmentof the Army, Washington, D.C. 20314 • An equalopportunity employer m/f

CISSR

by Dave Klingman

The Computer Institute for Social Science Re-search of Michigan State University was establishedin 1963 with two major functions. First, it is a re-search institute designed to provide research oppor-tunities for social science faculty. There are usuallyabout ten faculty in the research section all ofwhom hold joint appointments between CISSR andtheir home departments. Second, CISSR has atechnical section designed to provide computerservices for the MSU academic community, pri-marily developing and maintaining programs forsocial science data processing, and consulting intheir use.

At first CISSR began hiring faculty and graduatestudents to perform these technical functions. Butwith the establishment of the Federal Work-StudyProgram in 1966 CISSR began hiring talentedundergraduates. Initially there were about fiveprogrammer-consultants supervised by a staffmember who also trained them. However, as morewere hired it became evident that a formal trainingProgram was necessary. Such a program was set upwith two sub-programs.

The Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program wasdesigned not only to supply CISSR with technicalpersonnel, but also to provide research assistants

for computer oriented faculty, government agen-cies, and business concerns. The apprentices weresupervised by upper-division undergraduates whoalso taught informal classes in fortran pro-gramming, assembly language, mathematical logic,statistics, social science research methods, and com-puter data processing. They also worked in teamsof three or four members on projects and problemsprovided by social science faculty and the CISSRtechnical staff. The program grew to be quite largein the late 1960's and early 1970's, with as manyas 90 undergraduates employed at one time. In1970 the Center for Urban Affairs at MSU begangranting funds to CISSR to train minority students,which helped swell the ranks. The ApprenticeshipProgram produced many competent programmersand consultants.

The other sub-program was the Graduate InternProgram, designed to train social science graduatestudents in computer research methods. They re-ceived much the same training as the undergradu-ates and after one year they were returned to theirdepartments.

Recently tighter budgets have begun to have aneffect on CISSR's training program. First, theGraduate Intern Program is no longer in effect dueto departmental reductions in graduate assistants.Second, the Federal Work-Study Program has be-come more stringent in its requirements for Fi-nancial need. Third, employment opportunities incomputer-related fields have suffered along withother fields. In view of these developments CISSRis currently upgrading the quality of the trainingprogram while reducing its size. Hiring is becomingmore selective and training is being oriented towardCISSR's own technical functions. At present thereare 33 apprentices and 11 programmers and con-sultants. The Training Supervisor is now a facultyposition in the technical section. The curriculum isconcentrated in fewer courses taking a longerperiod of time and in CISSR-related projects beingdone individually.

Many CISSR projects are being completed in anundergraduate four credit course sponsored by theComputer Science Department, CPS490, taught bythe staff of the technical section. The course in-volves a lecture covering the design and techniquesof social science data processing program libraries,and a CISSR-related project assigned to each stu-dent. Thus, the student's work for CISSR is beingrewarded with academic credit rather than pay.Finally in the area of graduate training, the Collegeof Social Science is now requiring graduate stu-dents to have a minimum level of training or ex-perience in computer usage before they will beauthorized to use the university's computers. Tohelp provide this training the CISSR technicalsection is conducting a non-credit course in com-puter data processing for social scientists.

THE REHUMANIZATION OF SOCIETY (continued from page 7)

ruthless quest for efficiency. And yet if dissentand other forms of public feedback such ashearings and referendums were encouraged itmight be a workable alternative to the presentbureaucratic inefficiency.

It is becoming more and more obvious thatgovernment, like any other complex problem, is acomplicated series of trade-offs. Sooner or laterwe have to admit that no government can meetall of our needs. It is the classic enigma of theconservative and the liberal—how far shouldgovernment go? Ideally, a government should becapable of guaranteeing the rights of theindividual without specifying how the individualis to use his rights.

It is also a sad but true reflection that agovernment of men and women mirrors the faultsof those men and women. Our press has coined aphrase to describe one of those faults—the"credibility gap." Even this euphemism does notobscure the fact that the government has lied, islying, and will probably continue to lie. Recalllast spring how the present administration stoutlymaintained that absolutely no United Statesforces were operating in Laos. That took on arather hollow sound when an American newsmanbrought back a tape recording of a U.S. forwardair controller directing air strikes deep insideLaos. Then recall how the claim was changed tosay that no U.S. ground troops were operating inLaos. And yet pictures were published in thenewspapers of American civilians (allegedly CIAmen) on Laotian air bases. There is no realevidence available to us one way or theother-only nagging doubts. It is these naggingdoubts that are fed by half-truths fromWashington; they corrode any respect one mighthave for the integrity of the government. Ifgovernment is to be a resilient body capable ofresponding to change and dissent, it must be ableto admit mistakes and reflect greater honesty inits dealings.

Finally, in a flexible government there is roomfor political un-solutions. When asked what hewould do about the "racial problem" during the1965 New York Mayoralty campaign, WilliamBuckley replied: "Nothing-except promisejustice."6

THE OTHER PRIORITYDawn, July, 1945. New Mexico-The new

Tower of Babel stands in the desert. The highpriests have gathered to make a burnt offering tothe god of reason. It is the celebration of thetriumph of the technology of man.

As the time of the lighting of the altar growsnear men dare speak only in hushed voices. Andthen the tower is consumed in a flash as bright asa thousand suns. Hideous fireball and mushroomclouds slowly rise in the sky, and the heavens

reply with a giant shock wave. This triumph oftechnology symbolically blinded us, and we havebeen blinded by its power ever since.

Technology equals power. Man discovered thathe could unlease vast amounts of power-farmore than the individual imagination can copewith. Enamoured with technology we haveexploited nature, each other and ourselves.

What have we lost? Or gained? Does ourindividuality mean anything? Can technology becontrolled? Do we want to control it? These arethe kinds of serious questions people are askingthemselves—or are being confronted with today.Take the case of one James Driver, upper-middleclass, suburban-dwelling, tax-paying member ofour high-pressure society: "One winter morninglast year James Driver pulled away from hisBloomfield Hills home, looked at the slush andthe traffic, made a U-turn, pulled back into hisdriveway, turned off the motor . . . After twentyyears worth of rides on the suburban whirligig,Driver decided that morning that it was time toget off." Why? "Now I'll be controlling my ownlife. . . (referring to his plans to move toGaylord, Michigan.)"7 In fact it is only recentlythat large numbers of people are becoming awareof the relationship between technology and thequality of life. For somewhere along the line wewere lulled into believing that quality of life andconvenience in life were the same thing and thatno good thing would come of questioning theassumptions of our technological society.

In order to gain insight into the assumptions ofmodern technology it is necessary to step back tothe dawn of the age of reason. It was Galileowho said "where the senses fail, reason steps in."Newton's concept of the world was that of alarge machine, governed by certain natural laws.This thinking not only persisted but found itsway into the world of human affairs wherehumans are believed to be governed by the"laws" of sociology, psychology, and statistics.The outcome of all this has been the gradualreduction of man to a mere cog in the wheels ofhistory and the correspondent feelings ofuselessness, anonymity, alienation and the viewthat life is absurd. And in one modern sense it is."Our error (in technological society) has been inconstructing so much superstructure to encourageproductive performance that man has becomeident i f ied by his product ive function.Cybernation then threatens man's identity byof fer ing non-human ways of executingtechnique."8 Take an example: Golf is a game inwhich the object is to move a small ball of finitemass sequentially from one predeterminedlocation to another with a minimum amount ofexpended energy. It is certainly within the scopeof present-day technology to build a"golf-machine" that could take wind velocity,distance, trajectories, (etc., etc.) into account and

shoot the ball from one hole to the next. I haveno doubt that with practice it could reduce thegame to a series of eighteen "holes-in-one." Orbetter still, how about a system of pipes betweenholes with air pressure driving the ball from placeto place controlled by a computer to remove anypossibility of human error. Absurd? Of course!Yet that is exactly what we have done with thejobs and lives of more than a few in our society.We have taken away their chance to makemistakes, to learn and to be human. In otherwords, we have stripped their purpose from theirfunction. Going to work each morning on thesuburban whirligig was a function withoutmeaning for James Driver.

The demands of our technological society havetaken something away from us—that elusivequality of life or the joy of living. As the Bookof Ecclesiastes so eloquently put it: "Toeverything there is a season and a time to everypurpose under heaven . . . a time to break downand a time to build up . . . a time to keep and atime to cast away . . . a time to keep silence anda time to speak . . . What profit hath he thatworketh in that wherein he laboureth?"(Ecclesiastes chapter 3).

Toynbee, the great historian, argues thatcivilizations are cyclic in nature. This seems to bea reflection on the cyclic nature of individuals.We need challenges and activity and schedules.Yet we need times of privacy and retreat andtimes to think. There even seems to be a certainsense of frustration and tension that builds up ifwe are isolated from frequent encounters withnature. Nature here refers not only to grass andtrees and wide open spaces, but to the nature ofman as expressed through his art and his music.

Last year CBS did an interesting documentarystudy for their program "60 Minutes." The studywas a comparison of murder rates in Houston—acity of immense technological progress—and hersister city in Mexico. At the time of the study,Houston had the highest murder rate of any U.S.city, but the rate of her sister city was far lower.One of the commentators noted that thehomicide rates were roughly inverselyproportional to the number of public fountains ineach city. Now one does not have to be verybright to see that there is no magical connectionbetween homicide rates and public fountains.And yet, doesn't the number of fountains a cityhas say something about its concern for thewell-being of the individual? It is an attempt tokeep the joy in life that technology can so easilyrob us of.

A view that is becoming more widely acceptedtoday is that "the order of the universe is notjust passively observed but is imposed, at leastPartially, by man's mind."9 We believe that wecan invent the future. And inventing the futuremeans gaining mastery over technology.

Specifically, how can our American societybegin to exercise control over the pervasive graspof technology? This is not an easy question andit certainly does not beg an easy answer.

The very first step is to want to controltechnology. The newspapers are filled withreports of influential people proposing purelytechnical solutions to socio-technologicalproblems. This is tantamount to saying thattechnological skill—if only we carry it farenough-is the final answer. And in the end itmeans imposing a technical solution onsomebody, i.e., making them submit to itsmastery. So the cycle continues.

In our society we can force change to occur inthree main ways—voluntary self-control, publicpressure, and government control. Two of theseare ways of imposing solutions on people andmay not fundamentally change their nature ortheir outlook. In fact, imposed changes oftenhave a way of being transient and easilydisregarded. But when the change comes fromwithin a person, it is far more permanent.Another way to look at this is to observe thatchange can be effected at any level in the strataof society, but the deeper the level, the morepervasive and permanent the change. So the realquestion becomes, "How can we change thenature of people so they in turn can change thenature of technology?"

We must educate. Granted that education is aslow process where progress is measured by thechange over generations of students; it is still away to effect deep changes. But it will meanaltering the fabric of our educational systemsaway from job training and toward developmentof the total person. These are not easy changesand are much more long-term in nature than thepolitical changes suggested earlier.

REFERENCES

^Dialogue on Technology, edited by Robert Theobald,Bobbs-Merril Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1967, p. 7introduction.

2Op. Cit., Theobald, p. 16.3The Grim Generation, Robert Kavanaugh, Trident Press,

New York, 1970, p. 139.4 " A Foreign Vision of the Coming American Revolution,"

TIME magazine, February 22, 1971, p. 18.5"The Engineer and the Environment," Brad Behrman, A

Cooley essay paper published in the Michigan Technic,October, 1970, p. 17.

sUp From Liberalism, William Buckley, Bantam Books,New York, 1968, p. xx introduction.

7 A Feature Article in the Detroit Free Press, March 14,1971, p. 1.

' "The Admiration of Technique," Edward Mclrvine, Anessay published in Dialogue on Technology, p. 41 .

'"Human Imagination in the Age of Space," William R.Cozart, An essay published in Dialogue on Technology,p. 48. '

"All right, you idiots, fall in-onthe double!" barked the sergeant as hestrode into the barracks. Each soldiergrabbed his hat and jumped to his feet,except one-a private who lay in hisbunk reading a book. "Well?" roaredthe sergeant.

"Well," observed the private. "Therecertainly were a lot of them, weren'tthere?"

"It must be terrible to be lame,"the woman remarked, dropping aquarter into the beggar's hat.

"It sure is, lady," he agreed."But wouldn't it be worse to be

blind?" she asked."Much worse," replied the beggar.

"People kept giving me slugs when Iwas blind."

"I was married twice." explainedthe Civil Engineer to a newly gradu-ated Electrical Engineer, "and I'llnever marry again. My first wife diedafter eating poison mushrooms and mysecond died of a fractured skull."

"That's a shame," offered thefriend. "How did that happen?"

"She wouldn't eat her mushrooms."

A drunk fell on his pocket flask andsmashed it, naturally lacerating his rearend. Upon arriving home, he wasafraid to awaken his wife, so he pro-cured band-aids and a mirror and pro-ceeded to apply first-aid. Came dawn,his wife shook him and shouted,"Were you drunk last night?"

"Why, no!" reassured her soggyspouse.

"Oh, yeah?" yelled his wife. Thenwhat are all those band-aids doing onthe mirror?"

A certain brewer sent a sample ofhis beer to a lab to be analyzed.

A few days later he received a re-port from the chemist:

"Dear Sir:''Your horse had diabetes."

Two old friends, both prosperousIndustrial Engineers, hadn't seen eachother in some time and happened tomeet on the beach at Miami. "Whatbrings you here Jack?" asked one.

"Actually, Fred, a tragedy. Mybusiness was burned to the ground,and I'm taking a vacation on part ofthe $250,000 insurance money."

"What a coincidence," respondedFred. "My business was destroyed by aflood and I got almost a million ininsurance."

After a moment of thoughtfulsilence, Jack leaned close to his friendand whispered: "Tell me, Fred—howdo you start a flood?"

Freshman: I think your girl isspoiled.

Senior: No, it's just the perfumeshe's wearing.

Three Indian squaws of the Al-jabrtribe were seated in their wigwamswith their families. One, seated on adeer hide, had one child. The second,seated on an elk hide, also had onechild. The third seated on a hippo-potamus hide, had twins.

That proved that the squaw of thehippopotamus was equal to the sumof the squaws of the other two hides.

Civil Engineer: "You know some-thing, honey? I'm going to call youjello because you're so easy to make."

Coed: "That's all right, dear. I'llcall you oatmeal because you're donein three minutes."

"Do you believe in clubs forwomen?" a friend asked W.C. Fields.

"Yes," replied Fields, "if everyother form of persuasion fails."

A young lady, with a touch of hayfever, took with her to a dinner partytwo handkerchiefs, one of which shestuck in her bosom. At dinner she be-gan rummaging to the right and theleft in her bosom for the fresh handker-chief. Engrossed in her search, shesuddenly realized the conversation hadceased and people were watching her,fascinated.

In confusion, she murmered, 1know I had two when I came in."

M.E.: "Going out with girls a lotkeeps you young."

C.E. "How come?"M.E. "I started going out with

girls when I was a freshman two yearsago and I'm still a freshman."

StereotypeMany who use the word wouldn't know one when they seeone. Those who recognize it as a metal casting of a newspaperpage, curved for the press, may be deriving a livelihood fromthis and everything else they know about printing. The morepeople who depend on the printing industry for a living andthe more they know, the better for Kodak. The intricate com-plex of businesses and crafts centered on the art of printingand packaging is more than a principal market for specializedKodak products. One way or another, it provides a life rolefor a not inconsiderable segment of mankind. Finding a rolein life does seem to be a common problem.

So you picture an executive conference. Sweeping generali-ties uttered, fine details worried over, a strong voice takescommand: "Products alone can't sustain the growth we lookfor. The key is people—people to man our customer indus-tries, to want growth in them as much as we do. Wouldn't wereally be accomplishing more with a campaign to attractmore kids to printing?"

Not quite.We can't and shouldn't mount a campaign powerful enough

to lure large numbers of kids into printing and the graphicarts, but we have collaborated with new-style academics, theprinting and allied industries, and their unions in a measure-ment just completed of 1) manpower needs in these fields(not just ambitions), 2) how changes in technology promiseto affect the needs. Interest in the findings should be madeknown to W. F. Flack, Dept. 942, Kodak, Rochester, N.Y.14650.

HOW CAN A SHEET OF SILICONE RUBBERHELP TURN ATEN-YEAR-OLD INVALID INTO

ATEN-YEAR-OLD ATHLETE?A few years ago, General

Electric engineers developed asilicone copolymer rubber withsome remarkable properties.

It's a membrane that permitsthe rapid exchange of oxygenand carbon-dioxide molecules.

So ifs made a revolutionarynew artificial lung possible. TheGE Peirce lung™ oxygenatesblood in much the same waythe human lung does.

Thafs a major engineeringaccomplishment. But thafs notthe reason it's important.

The GE Peirce lung workswith a minimum of disturbanceto blood cells. So it can be usedsafely much longer than con-ventional lung machines. Daysinstead of hours.

That extra time may be whata doctor needs to repair the de-fective heart of a child. To open

the clogged arteries of an adult.Orto save the life of an accidentvictim whose lungs give out.

That extra time may be all ittakes to help put thousands ofthose invalids back on their feet.

It's a pretty clear example ofhow a technological innovationcan help solve a social problem.A lot of times, the effect of tech-nology on society is ratherdirect.

That's why at General Elec-tric, we judge innovations moreby the impact they'll have onpeople's lives than by theirsheertechnical wizardry.

Maybe that's a standard youshould apply to the work you'llbe doing. Whether or not youever work at General Electric.

Because, as our engineerswill tell you, it's not so muchwhat you do that counts. It'swhat it means.