X-no-Archive:yes
Why, indeed? The most important reason is perspective; there will always be
naysayers to pooh-pooh today's accomplishments. Not all of our critics are
our friends, and having the perspective of history can answer the naysayers.
I find it fascinating that Hollerith got his start providing a solution to
tabulating US census results. After the Civil War, census results from the
previous decade took just over nine years to accumulate, and actually posed
some threat to our particular form of representational democracy. Hollerith
demonstrated how his little cards with their punched-out holes could be
tabulated by (his) machines (it was the next president of his company,
Thomas Watson, who renamed the company to International Business Machines).
The machines saved the day, and continue to prevent some problems before
they occur, by providing an alternate and more efficient means before the
previous approach becomes untenable.

From history, we can make crude guesses about the trends we might expect and
how they might continue, for better or worse. And we can reason by analogy
to find solutions to some of today's problems.

Of course, some enjoy boasting about solutions to real problems that have
since been forgotten.

-----Original Message-----
From: Simonsen, Larry [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 10:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Punch Cards (Was latest technology)

<snip>
Why spend so much time dwelling on
the past.  Lets get on to today's problems
<snip>