13. Computers for the Masses

From the living room and family auto to the supermarket and office, it's impossible to escape the electronic revolution that is transforming the way people live and work.

Already, technological gains are bringing to people products, services, and recreation they never dreamed of just a few years ago: stereophonic television, T.Y. sets that can be carried in a coat pocket, portable radios with stereo sound, home telephones that signal when another caller is on the line and forward calls from home to business, bill paying without the paperwork.

Outside the home, the dazzle of electronics is no less brilliant: a perfectly typed letter at the touch of a button, building and auto designs from a computer, cash from the bank at any hour, instant access to thousands of reference sources.

All this comes at a price. Robbery by computer now is the primary white-collar crime, according to some criminologists, and costs society anywhere from $100 million to $3 billion a year. Another problem raised by the use of more computers is the risk of invasion of personal privacy. There is also concern on the part of many workers that their jobs will be taken by computerized robots or some other form of automation.

The computer industry can trace its beginning to 1906, when inventor Lee DeForest perfected the three-element vacuum tube.

That device, the triode, made it possible to use one electric current to control the flow of another. From that development seventy-six years ago has evolved a $120-billion-a-year electronics industry that includes everything from laser beams for medicine and industry to guidance systems for weapons and video games.

This business, in which technological discoveries occur with regularity, is on its way to becoming a bedrock of the U.S. economy. By the end of the decade, according to some estimates, its sales will rival those of America's basic industries—steel, autos, and chemicals.

Currently, about 10 percent of all electronic-products sales are in consumer, rather than business-oriented, products. But at the rate advances are made in radios, T. V. sets, computers, and telephones, people's lives will be changed more and more by electronics. For example:

The gradual computerization of the telephone means that, in the not-too-distant future, a single phone number will be enough to reach a person, no matter where in the world he or she is. Or consumers calling a firm's single national number will be routed automatically to the nearest office.

Computers will be essential to the smooth and efficient operation of the home, by regulating room temperatures, controlling lights, and activating security systems. People will be able to use them to leave messages with other households. Videotex systems will permit people to use television sets, telephones, and computers to shop and pay bills electronically, tap into reference and referral services, and take advantage of popular home computer programs such as games and foreign-language instruction. New York's Chemical Bank has a system that allows users to pay bills and mortgages by computer.

Parents may be led by their children in computer literacy. Already, at least 173 000 computers are in public schools—an average of 2.2 per school—and rapid increases are expected. Also, some colleges now require that new students have their own computers, a trend bound to spread.

In short, America is at the beginning of a computer revolution, not only in the business world but also in the home.