Information Systems in Management Science—Predicting the Future of Computers

I am convinced that the future growth of the computer field is much more dependent upon society's priorities and values than upon anything the computer business itself does. For the past twenty-five years, the American public has been pro science and technology, and computers were the darling of the scientist and the technologist. If society is as pro science and technology over the next ten years as it has been over the past twenty, marginal decisions will be made in favor of the computer and the industry will continue to grow rapidly. But there is every indication that our society is becoming progressively more anti science and technology. If this trend continues, the computer industry will top out and show signs of weakening over the next ten years.