The Computer Center
University of Pittsburgh
1960s

At the computer center,
So many young women and young men
Waiting anxiously to learn
Whether they’ve properly followed the etiquette of the machine
So as to be told by the machine
That what they’ve done
Has been OK.

The yammering, idiot machine (IBM 1401 printer)
Pounds out responses
In endless streams of processed trees
Bringing a grin to one face
A frown to another
In a depth of concern for etiquette
Seldom achieved by a mother.

You’ve got to do everything right
Or everything is wrong
And trying to get it to do more and more
Goes on and on and on.

There’s so much that it may someday do
They’re at it all the time,
Making it draw and squiggle and print
Morning, noon, and night
While meals go cold or are never cooked
And loves are won and lost.

An electronic game of widened scope,
I guess a computer is,
A slot machine exploded into awesomeness
With the sometimes nature of doing things right
Become so demanding that young men and women are consumed
By the etiquette of the machine.

Once you learn the etiquette
There’s so much the thing can do;
It may point the way to a better world
Where people needn’t do many things they mow must do
Where computers will figure and draw and design
All on their very own
Where people will be freer to have time for people
But will probably watch TV.

The machine won’t care what people do with their time
It’ll yammer and print and flash and type,
Telling children when they’re wrong or right;
It’ll use up forests of processed trees,
Printing steadily along;
It’ll keep on printing day and night
As long as anyone’s there
To push the buttons and twist the knobs –
As long as anyone’s there.

Adrian

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