By Niraj Shah
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 12, 1997

A new society of manual labor

Editor:

I couldn't agree more with Jamie Kanter's editorial that appeared in Wednesday's Wildcat ("Computers scare me"). It is good to know that his fear of computers partially stems from such credible sources as "Tron" and "War Games". My anxiety happens to be the result of "2001: A Space Odyssey". If computers can take over our defense systems and our space vessels, why use them at all? I think we ought to go back to the time when everything was done manually. There's a certain satisfaction you earn by writing an essay by hand or arriving at a quotient that is accurate to the eighth decimal place.

As a society, we need to release ourselves from the shackles of these evil machines. To start this computer-free trend, we should teach grade schoolers penmanship instead of computer literacy. If everything in the future will be handwritten, it better be neat. I also propose the following additional changes: power plants should be constantly monitored by human operators, electronic circuits should be designed by hand, traffic lights should be replaced with members of the police force directing traffic. Since there would be no computers, this new society would employ thousands, if not millions, more workers.

As for the university catalogue, the university should spend the extra money needed to hire a group of people (with immaculate penmanship) to hand write the new catalogue. On the same note, it's a shame the university is discontinuing the mailing of Official Grade Reports. Nothing beats the anticipation of opening that piece of mail upon which your scholarships and future depend, especially when you could have found out the same information two weeks prior.

Mr. Kanter thinks computers should be the icing on the cake of our lives.

Well, I hate icing.

Niraj Shah

computer engineering senior