Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals

Bernadette Longo is an Associate Dean in the College of Science and Liberal Arts and an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Before joining the NJIT faculty in 2012, Dr. Longo taught for 11 years at the University of Minnesota. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1996. Dr. Longo uses a cultural studies approach to investigate communication practices situated within particular contexts and mediated by technological devices. This cultural studies approach was exemplified in her first book Spurious Coin: A History of Science, Management, and Technical Writing. Her efforts were recognized in two 2006 co-edited collections, one of which won the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Best Edited Collection in Scientific and Technical Communication (Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies). Dr. Longo received a History Committee Fellowship from the Association for Computing Machinery in 2012 and is the 2014 recipient of the Emily Schlesinger Award in recognition of her service to the IEEE Professional Communication Society.

Edmund C. Berkeley (1909 - 1988) was a mathematician, insurance actuary, inventor, publisher, and a founder of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). His book Giant Brains or Machines That Think (1949) was the first explanation of computers for a general readership. His journal Computers and Automation (1951-1973) was the first journal for computer professionals. In the 1950s, Berkeley developed mail-order kits for small, personal computers such as Simple Simon and the Braniac. In an era when computer development was on a scale barely affordable by universities or government agencies, Berkeley took a different approach and sold simple computer kits to average Americans. He believed that digital computers, using mechanized reasoning based on symbolic logic, could help people make more rational decisions. The result of this improved reasoning would be better social conditions and fewer large-scale wars. Although Berkeley's populist notions of computer development in the public interest did not prevail, the events of his life exemplify the human side of ongoing debates concerning the social responsibility of computer professionals.This biography of Edmund Berkeley, based on primary sources gathered over 15 years of archival research, provides a lens to understand social and political decisions surrounding early computer development, and the consequences of these decisions in our 21st century lives.