The Computerization of Society

First published in 1978 as a report to France's president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, "The Computerization of Society" became a best-seller abroad and the cause of instantaneous and widespread public discussion. When the Industrial Revolution was beginning, few people realized the importance of what was taking place. The singular importance of this report is that it comes to grips with a similar major technological event, showing how a new technology can reshape society and why the political system has to change to meet the new scale of economic life and the new patterns of social life that result.The authors coined the word "telematique" (or "telematics" in English) to describe the growing interconnection between computers and telecommunications. In his introduction, Daniel Bell writes that this term "expresses a new reality, an innovation that has the possibility of transforming society in the way that railroads and electricity did in the nineteenth century."Bell, who remarks that "The Computerization of Society" "has the impact of a modern Jules Verne story," outlines the areas where telematics are likely to change patterns of transactions--in data processing networks, information banks and retrieval systems, teletext systems, facsimile systems, and interactive on-line computer networks. He notes, "In a broader political and sociological sense, the Nora/Minc report raises a different question for the United States. In this volume, two astute observers, aided by a team of technical specialists, have surveyed a major technological and social innovation and have proposed a unified national policy to deal with the impending changes. In the United States, where the scale of activities in this field is considerably larger than in France, there is as yet no national policy."The book includes a summary of the four-volume supporting document and a glossary.

Review :
"Raises both practical and philosophical problems, and suggests a French national plan. As is to be expected, there are many contrasts with the larger and looser American way of doing things in this domain."--"Foreign Affairs" "Written as a report to the President of France, [this book] seeks to show how a new technology, computers, will reshape the social structure and how the economic and political systems must accommodate resulting new patterns of social life. Organized in terms of the challenges presented by advances in computer technology (or 'telematics, ' the growing interconnection between computers and telecommunications), the potential points of organizational support, and questions for the future."--"Science, Technology, and Human Values"