Review of "Computers and the Cybernetic Society by Michael A. Arbib"; Academic Press, New York, 1977

Courses on computers and society are usually intended for students who have not necessarily ever learned to program a computer. The author of a textbook must therefore spend a lot a time teaching about the technical details of computing (the important issues of the course are usually met about the midterm point!), and then proceed on that half-semester intuitive basis to discuss data banks, electronic fund transfer, digital watches, automated warfare, and calculators. Most of these books are written by computer scientists rather than social scientists and therefore tend to have a passable technical half and an awful to mediocre social half.