Weizenbaum examines computers and society - The Tech
Professor Joseph Weizenbaum is well-known, both as a teacher of computer science and as an activist for scientific and educational responsibility. He designed the first computerized banking system before coming to MIT in the 1960s. He invented ELIZA, the first "psychiatric" program, and was moved by the reaction to it to write the best-selling Computer Power and Human Reason.
A:I'll tell you my reaction to that question without answering it directly. There's a Russian joke that goes something like this: Two people are standing in a very large breadline in Moscow, and they're talking about the fact that the harvest failed once more and that's why there's a shortage of bread, and one of them says to the other, "You know, it's all the fault of the Jews and the bicyclists." The other one says, "Why the bicyclists?" and the first one answers, "Why the Jews?"
You might have said "What is the role of computers and bicycles in education?" Then I would have said, "Why the bicycles?" and you "Why the computer?"
