DIGITAL COMPUTERS — McCORMICK 299 



This is especially true in the fields outside the exact sciences. However, 

 scientists are now engaged in analyzing many operations in simple, 

 fundamental terms suitable for use by computers. This has the de- 

 sirable side result of increasing Imowledge over and above that wliich 

 can be fed to computers. 



The limited number of operations that computers can perform com- 

 pels all who use them to employ a common means of expression. The 

 computer does not know whether the sequence of instructions which 

 it performs were written by an accountant, linguist, philosopher, 

 librarian, theologian, social scientist, physical scientist, engineer, or 

 mathematician. Furthermore, its operations are independent of the 

 natural language (English, French, or any other) of the person writ- 

 ing the program for the computer. At least at this level the activities 

 in all sciences and of all nationalities are in a sense unified. This is 

 especially interesting in an age when many fields of human endeavor 

 are becoming more and more specialized and the problems of com- 

 municating between disciplines more difficult. 



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