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Means Of Computer Modification: Potential applications of the computer made possible by microelectronics include a small computer in every home or a pocket computer terminal that can be connected to a powerful central computer via the telephone. Such devices may be used to solve our numerical problems (e.g., income tax, or our bank balance) or as a creative tool to relate our knowledge and experiences to our future actions.
And what of the computer? Olof Johannesson's 1966 novel, The Tale of the Big Computer (which first appeared in an American edition in 1968), offers a history of the development of computers as told by an advanced computer of the future. In an unemotional, utterly convincing essay, it describes the gradual obsolescence and disappearance of its creator, man.
En Route Navigation.—After World War II an airway navigation system was established for United States civil airways. The complete system utilizes an omnidirectional radio range (omnirange) ; distance-measuring equipment (DME), resembling a radar beacon; and a computer. The omnirange enables a pilot to fly accurately any course he wishes to either to or from the omnirange station. The DME very accurately furnishes the range to the DME station, which is usually at the same location as the omnirange station. By means of computer modification of the direction information of the omnirange and the distance information of the DME, the pilot can determine his exact position at any time. By means of computer modification of a simple computer, called a course-line computer, he can easily fly any straight-line course he wishes within the range of the omnirange and the DME. |
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