Examining the computing and centralization debate

discussion of the computer's impact on society, few have been as provocative and hotly contested as that of computerization and centralization. The notion that computers, or more significantly, a computer, will control the lives and destinies of humans actually predates the age of computing. E.M. Forster's novella The Machine Stops, written in 1916, describes a utopian society in which all goods and services are provided by a giant "thinking m a c h i n e "-u n t i l the machine stops. Yvgeny Zamyatin's 1930 novel We tells a similar story of a society run by a gigantic machine that eventually becomes the oppressor of the people. And Kurt Vonnegut's 1956 novel Player Piano updated Forster's and Zamyatin's visions, setting the stage for ongoing speculation about the centralizing effects of the modern digital computer.

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