UDLS

Suppose someone had invented a magical robot which could do automatic typewriting, memorize any information you wanted it to, and juggle that information later -- extracting any features you wanted, telling you how many words it contained, or whether these included the word "meatloaf," or figuring out the average of numbers that happened to be in it. Let's say this instrument is called a Retupmoc. A Retupmoc could help you keep your appointments, plan your time, keep you checkbook up. In your leisure time you could play all kinds of music, work your household appliances, and show movies. Would you like one? Believe it or not, you can have one now. But it's not called a Retupmoc. It's spelled the other way around: C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R. But mention computers, which are just Retupmocs under their more usual name, and people grow uneasy and fearful and resentful, and somebody mutters, "They're taking over the world!" And so they have, in the worst way. Computer systems for record-keeping and accounting and control, as used by business and government agencies, have given the world a new bleakness and oppression. It does not have to be. "Everybody knows" that a computer is an implacable, dictatorial, unapproachable, incredibly complicated device. What everyone should know is that computers are fun, friendly, helpful, exciting, and cheap.