"In this volume I bring together some of my thinking new and old, on the subject of computers and automation. The old thinking is a description of the computer technology and its implications for management. The new thinking is an analysis of the economic implications of automation . . . . My research activities during the pas decade have brought me into contact with developments in the use of electronic digital computers. These computers are startling even in a world that takes atomic energy and the prospects of space travel in its stride. The computer and the new decision-making techniques associated with it are bringing changes in white-collar, executive, and professional work as momentous as those the introduction of machinery has brought to manual jobs. These essays record the product of my reflections about the organizational and social implications of these rapid technical developments." - Herbert A. Simon in the Preface.