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Science for the People Magazine Vol. 17, Nos fn case you hadn't noticed. computers are eveJYWhere. If you Editorial Coordinator don't use one at work or own one at home, chances are good Seth Shulman Magazine Coordinator that you deal directly with one when you go to the bank, shop at Leslie Fraser the supermarket, or even. in many places. dial directory assistance. Business Manager The arrival of the "computer revolution" has been trumpeted with Gary Keenan much fanfare in the media, most often for the "convenience and Cover efficiency" it is supposed to bring with it. But this is only part of Wen-ti Tsen Art & Photos the story. As this collection of articles shows. a deeper look also R. Crumb, Andrew Joslin, Keith McHenry, uncovers the computer's many other subtle and sometimes insidi­ Jane Morris, Ellen Shub, Nick Thorkelson, Ray ous impacts on our lives. Valdes Production The clean image of the high-tech industry, for example, hides Audrey Borus, Rachel DeCarlo, Leslie Fraser, the harsh truth about its effects on our environment and our Gert Freedman, Mel Freedman, Jess Gugino, Roger Karapin, Gary Keenan, Laura Reed, workers. The mad rush by many states in this country to attract Joseph Regna, Sholeh Regna, Robert Rotstein, high-tech firms obscures the true effects of this new industry on Nancy Shulman, Seth Shulman, Dale Sylvain, our jobs. Ken Geiser exposes the health dangers behind the high­ Cathy Wenthe Circulation tech industry's clean image and several authors in our special sec­ Richard Aichelmann tion on computers and education investigate what kind of jobs Material Requests computers and the high-tech industry will really bring. Jim Barton Meanwhile, as the computer revolution marches on, schools Advertising are buying computer hardware almost as fast as they can. while Leslie Fraser, Charles Puccia Editorial Committee other areas of the education budget face severe cuts. 1What are Audrey Borus, Rachel DeCarlo, Kay Edwards, teachers doing with these machines? Are students learning new Roger Felix, Leslie Fraser, Dan Grossman, Jess Gugino. Joseph Regna, Seth Shulman, Dale creative skills. or are they being drilled and dehumanized? Who Sylvain, Cathy Wenthe gets access to computers. and when they do. what are they being Editorial Advisory Board taught? It is questions such as these that we set out to answer in Joe Alper, Rita Arditti, Jon Beckwith, Philip L. Bereano, Edith Brickman, Stephen Chorover, the education section. Fran Conrad, Eric Entemann, Roslyn Feldberg, While we were looking, we came across an "educational" Ross Feldberg, Marilyn Frankenstein, Douglas Futyama, Ted Goldfarb, Rae Goodell, Stephen usage of computers so onerous that it demanded attention. As Jay Gould, William Haseltine, David Thomas Bartholomay details, Control Data Corporation has been Himmelstein, Eric Holtzman, Ruth Hubbard, David Kahn, Charles Koplik, Richard Levins, working with the apartheid government of South Africa to estab­ Richard Lewontin, Karen Messing, Frank Mirer, lish a massive computerized education system that will help to David Noble, Richard Novick, Connie Phillips, Alvin F. Poussaint, Stephen Risch, Richard further repress blacks and maintain white rule. It is a painful exam­ Rosen, Virginia Schaefer, Scott P. Schneider, ple of the frightening potential of computers to repress and control, Miriam Struck, Sue Tafler, Michael Tanzer, Scott Thacher, John Vandermeer, Gerry Waneck, to track and monitor. South Africa is not alone in this respect. As Joseph Weizenbaum, Sandy Wiper, Stephie we have covered previously, similarly repressive uses of computer Woolhandler systems are already in place in West Germany, and pose a TYpesetting Platform Studio, 636 Beacon St., growing threat here in the U.S. as well. Boston, MA 02215 But of all the impacts of computers, perhaps the most devas­ Printing tating is also one of the least known, and the least reported: their Rowley Printing, 395 Main St., deadly role in current military plans. As three separate articles in Rowley, MA 01969 SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. one year/six issues: S15. this issue reveal. the increasing computerization of our weapons Foreign surface mail: S20. Air mail to Canada: S20.50. Air mail to Latin America: S24.50. Air mail to Europe: systems portends many ominous possibilities for the future, all of S28. Air mail to Asia and Africa: S31.50. which threaten to bring us closer to violent conflict. These articles Institutional/library rate: S24. Member subscriptions (Includes the magazine, our newsletter and other provide cause for concern and a call to action. internal communications): S25. Foreign subscribers must remit in U.S. currency, with either an Unquestionably, the computer is a powerful tool. But powerful International Money Order or a check drawn on a tools are often dangerous tools, especially in the wrong hands, or U.S. bank. SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE Is available to bookstores used carelessly. The concerns raised in these pages are mainly con­ on consignment from the publisher or through Carrier Pigeon Distributors, P.O. Box 2783, Boston, MA cerns about control, both control over the technology itself, and its 02208. The magazine is available on microfilm from uses. They are. from this vantage point questions of crucial import­ Xerox Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, Ml 48109. Science tor the People is Indexed In Alternative ance as we collectively try our hand at computing the future. Press Index, P.O. Box 7229, Baltimore, MD 21218. March/April 1985 Volume J 7, Numbers J & 2 Computing the Future 8 THE CHIPS ARE FALLING by Ken Geiser Health hazards in the microelectronics industry J 2 ET GO HOME by Derek Rasmussen The revolution in not-so-conventional weapons J 7 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HIGH TECH by Ray Valdes How to floppy to that disko beat 2 J THE STRATEGIC COMPUTER INITIATIVE by Jonathan Tucker The military's double-edged sword 2 6 COMPUTERS IN UNIFORM by Joseph Weizenbaum A good fit? 3 J CONTROL DATA AND APARTHEID by Thomas Bartholomay PLATOnic control of South Africa's Blacks COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION 36 WHOSE COMPUTER IS IT, ANYWAY? by Sarah Michaels, Courtney Cazden and Bertram Bruce Schools embrace computers without knowing why 3 7 TAKING CONTROL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY by Bertram Bruce How to use computers productively and progressively 4 J COMPUTERS IN THE CLASSROOM by Marcia Boruta and Hugh Mehan Social stratifiers or liberating equalizers? DEPARTMENTS 2 Preview 56 In Brief 4 Letters 58 Resources 5 Newsnotes 59 Network REVIEWS 5 I Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolution 53 The Rise of the Computer State SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE fiSSN 0048-9662) is published bimonthly by the Science Resource Center, Inc., a nonprofit corporation. at 897 Main St .. Cambridge, MA 02139, telephone (617) 547-0370. Edited and produced by the national organization of Science for the People. We offer a progressive view of science and technology. Articles, letters, book reviews, newsnotes. photos and artwork are welcome. Please send three copies of double spaced, typed manuscripts. Unless otherwise stated, all material© 1985 by Science for the People. t~eoretical issues to work out perspec­ tives for our activities. What's very Euromissiles and U.S. Scientists germane to this discussion but often for­ gotten, is Karl Marx's profound critique of science and technology. On tech­ nology not being neutral, for instance, Dear SftP: of the Atomic Scientists, invited me to ~ake Marx's painstakingly detailed proof This letter has been slow in coming to m vol. 1 of Capital that machinery not write an article for them based on my express enormous appreciation for the only causes unemployment but "is the book The Bias of Science (reviewed in article "Euromissiles and U.S. Scientists" SftP, volume 12, number 6). I submitted a m~st powerful weapon for suppressing by John Harris (SftP Vol. 16, No. 5). I've stnkes, those periodic revolts of the short simple article, discussing state and reproduced it in many copies and have workers against the autocracy of corporate inf~ue~ces on research topics, ?een sending them to appropriate groups capital." on the orgamzatwn of the scientific m order to call attention to its crucial As Bereano and Marx both show tech­ commu~ity, and on scientific knowledge. information. nology is not "'neutral" but an integral I also d1scussed the possibilities of a more Herbert York addressed a huge part of society. Marx goes on to show community-based science. But this was gath:r~ng in Los Angeles organized by how in capitalism this produces not just a rejected by Bulletin of the Atomic Phys1C1ans for Social Responsibility which "sense of alienation" but alienated labor Scienti~ts, allegedly due to lack of space. I attended. He presented truths, half wherein the worker is reduced to "an ' The 1deas I was presenting are old hat truths, and a general pattern of disinfor­ appendage to the machine." to most SftP readers. They are also well m~tion. His Scientific American magazine Where Bereano points to "a very long understood-if not fully subscribed to-in article, Oct. 10, 1983, while better on and intricate kind of process to raise the some academic circles, such as the some data, essentially went along with consciousness of people," the Marxian soph~sticat:d though academic analyses the administration's propaganda by dialectic shows that process as the very of sc1ence m the British journal Social dragging in the subject of the invasion of law of motion of capitalist society: as the ~tudies of Science. So I decided to try to Afghanistan. This type of rhetoric under­ machine comes more and more to dom­ fmd an outlet in North America among mines the important need to work for inate and fragment the worker, so grows more orthodox journals where these US-USSR nuclear weapons disarmament the worker's "quest for universality." In views are seldom presented.
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