on the structure of a computing profession
Computer systems are dangerously out of control in several dimensions today. They are out of control with respect to social integrity, with respect to fiscal integrity, and with respect to cost and productivity. It is a simple matter for a knowledgeable person to abuse privacy and priviledged information in computer systems, to obtain information and to change it without authorization. Such illegal acts can be used for social ill or financial illto invade privacy, to embezzle, to defraud. But where dishonesty is possible and occasionally may occur, an honest and industrious lack of competence has produced a staggering over-kill in cost and effort in programming. This overkill cost has two dimensions itselffirst, in the cost of producing programs, and second in the cost of the inefficiency with which they control the hardware. It is not the least farfetched to imagine that each of these overkill costs are of the order of ten times that which is possible. That is, we are paying ten times too much for our programs, and they are getting only one tenth as must work as they should out of the hardware.
structure computation systems control social integrability cost product privacy informal change author competence program hardware order