Role of the Microcomputer in the Demise of Western Civilization

摘要

Every revolutionary new technology has been accompanied by a host of Cassandras prophesying the end of the world as it is known. Unlike Cassandra, heretofore they have all been wrong. The microcomputer has come into its own as a revolutionary new technology, and the new generation of Cassandras is beginning to appear. They, too, for the most part are wrong, but their error is not in their conclusion - for the microcomputer will bring about the end of Western Civilization - but in their concentration on technological consequences. It is rather a social consequence, the willful disintegration of society, which will be the motivating force. But Cassandra's tragedy was that no one listened to her. (ERA citation 05:035843)