2003sep29. If you’ve been following the Diebold voting machine scam, you may be amused by the following excerpt in the book Writing the Modern Magazine Article from an article in the October 1967 issue of Playboy:
“Sometimes computers are used for prestige purposes, sometimes as a means of avoiding human responsibility,” says computer consultant John Diebold. Diebold, at 41, is a millionaire and an internationally sought-after expert on “automation” (a term he coined in the early 1950s). “Scientists and executives have discovered that it’s impressive to walk into a meeting with a ream of computer print-out under your arm. The print-out may be utter nonsense, but it looks good, looks exact, gives you that secure, infallible feeling. Later, if the decision you were supposed to make or the theory you were propounding turns out to be wrong, you simply blame the computer or the man who program[m]ed it for you.”