The machine as partner of the new professional: Today's instruments are providing more data than the mind can process; expert systems are coming to the rescue but may soon usurp human roles
IEEE Spectrum · 1984
No one can truly predict the future, and many will refuse to believe that letters like the one above will ever be written, let alone in only 50 years. But during the relatively short history of electrotechnology, professional work has already undergone radical changes. Now the forces that produce change are increasing, and the pace of change is quickening. I believe it is safe to predict that advances in electrotechnology—and especially in automated decision making, or so-called knowledge systems—will dramatically alter the nature of professional work as we know it.