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Routine Computer Ized: All data from the various tests are fed into a computer, which then compares the results with previously established standards. Several days later the computer data are all assembled, and the computer prints out for the physician a summary of all relevant information as well as comparisons with the results in previous examinations. At the end of the series of 20 steps in the center, the patient may be recommended for additional tests, for repeating certain tests if the results are unexpected, for immediate referral to his physician, or for a routine computer ized visit to his physician at a later date.
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. |
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