
On the Future Computer Era: Modification of the American Character  (1968) - dredmorbius
https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P3780.html
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dredmorbius
One of numerous papers by networking pioneer Paul Baran, at RAND.

 _A warning that unintended but disastrous effects on society have resulted
from improved and computerized recordkeeping, owing to (1) the habit of
limiting the number of variables considered to those easily quantified, (2)
the tendency to use records and scores instead of judgment, and (3) the use of
information to maximize private profit without regard to the damage inflicted
by everybody doing this at once. Using computers, loan and insurance companies
screen out the highest-risk groups. Fire or burglary insurance cannot be
obtained in areas where business development is most needed. Many people are
rendered uninsurable and /or unemployable on the basis of health, education,
or past failures or infractions that former generations would have
successfully concealed. What future have the 40 percent of all urban youth (90
percent Negro) who will have some brush with the law, when an arrest record
bars them forever? Those who understand technology have an obligation to lift
their eyes from minimizing subsystem costs and at least be an early warning
system for the rest of society._

