The Gadget Charm My second apprehensive question concerns an intellectual danger with great practical consequences. Cybernetics, as named by its founder, is a beautiful subject with great intellectual variety, depth, and complexity. I suspect, however, that the computer in certain hands could easily become a gadget. Gadgets are the greatest single source of misjudgment that I have ever seen, or that anyone has ever seen in scientific decisions in our time. People get fascinated by gadgets. They love them. They want everything to be explained in terms of their gadget. They think it is the answer to everything on heaven and earth. All the bad decisions I have seen have some element of gadgetry in them. And I suspect that computers in government are going to get into the hands of persons with mildly defective or canalized judgment and become gadgets. It will be astonishing if that does not happen.
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Lori Emerson
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