Computers in Knowledge-Based Fields

The impact of computers on management has been profound and has been well documented by the present author among others. Their impact on the knowledge-based fields, perhaps because the problems such field can offer to computers are more complex and elusive, has not yet made itself felt to the same extent. Nevertheless, computer applications in these fields are rapidly evolving, and Professor Myers gives us the first broad look at the present situation and future prospects.

The knowledge-based fields that the book examines in detail, in successive chapters, are: education, library systems, legal and legislative services, medical and hospital services, and both national and centralized local data banks. In each case the author describes the needs that led to the introduction of computers, their initial or early applications, and their most recent applications, including both systems now in routine use and those still in the experimental stage. He also projects possible long-term developments, noting the implications these might have for changing the nature of work and organization in these fields and the resistance to such change.

Among the systems described are the use of computers for instructing students from grade school through college—grading papers in English composition for style—counseling students in curriculum choices and providing vocational guidance—scheduling classes—evaluating courses—allocating university resources—providing nearly immediate access to the entire contents of a library—allowing the library user to put information in as well as draw it out—checking legal precedents—preparing wills—planning estates—providing an inexpensive source of legal aid to the poor—establishing patrol car assignments—analyzing electrocardiograms—acting as bedside, on-line patient monitors or "nurses"—interacting with physicians in making "sequential" diagnoses—aggregating and manipulating information from individuals on their physical, social, and economic condition on a nationwide or citywide basis.

As to the overall impact of computers on the knowledge-based fields, Professor Myers notes that "One may be pessimistic about short-run possibilities in computer-based programs in each of these fields, because of resistances, slowness in overcoming technical problems in hardware and software, and the gap between extravagant claims and actual performance in some cases. But over the long pull, the computer revolution will certainly affect the way in which work is done and how people function in all knowledge-based fields, as it has already in the management of enterprises. Professionals and specialists will find their capabilities enlarged, not threatened, by the computer and they will accept this fact better if they are brought into the development of systems earlier rather than later."