However, computers can allow research involving the processing of huge volumes of results to be speeded up considerably, and computer programmes make possible the effective simulation of laboratory experiments saving both time and money. There is no denying, then, that computerisation has had a significant impact on many aspects of the economy as a whole. But leaving aside some of the recent developments in computer-aided production techniques, most of these computer applications were all well advanced by the end of the 1980s. Consequently, their direct and indirect productivity benefits should have been evident well before 1995 and the subsequent spurt in US productivity figures. In contrast to computerisation, communications is much more a facilitator than a doer.
Computers have both more applications and more potential to eliminate mental and manual labour.
Communications, on the other hand, is about the transfer of information from A to B, where A and B are either people or the computers which replace them. The transmission of information is a vital part of all economic and much of social life, and the reduced cost of communication is a direct boon for society, as a smaller portion of social wealth is spent communicating. But since the Second World War, at least, the amount allocated to pay for telecommunications has not been that big a portion of business or domestic expenditure in most industrialised countries. Unless you are subjected to listening to it on ever-longer train journeys, the greater convenience of wireless or mobile telephony is a definite plus for society. But this is more difficult to quantify in its economic effects.