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A model employee

Broadcast Date: Sept. 9, 1964

Computers perform tasks faster than any human on the job. Better still, they never report to work with a hangover. In 1964, companies begin to rely on this sophisticated equipment to perform jobs that would otherwise be done by humans. At the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, printing machines operate with empty chairs in front of them. Computer technology sets the newspaper's type all on its own.

Computers have also improved Canada's telephone system, as reported in this CBC Television clip. By simply dialling 13 digits, Canadians can reach their loved ones without ever speaking to an operator. But automation does have its drawbacks. In the next six years, experts predict the economy will need to produce three million jobs to avoid an unemployment catastrophe due to automation.

A model employee

• In the 1960s, the federal government's Telidon Project experimented with telephone automation in Canada. The government attempted to create a phone network run by a huge mainframe computer. It was supposed to allow users to access Telidon no matter where they were.
• Although the Telidon experiment failed, its technology became the basis for other remotely-accessed systems.

• One example is Infomart, a database used by news agencies like the Globe and Mail and Knight Ridder to house massive archives of articles.
• In this television clip, the CBC interviews John Diebold, who says he coined the term "automation." He shortened the correct word at the time "automatization," which he said was too difficult to spell.
• John Diebold passed away in December 2005.
• The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2002) defines both automation and automatization as "the state of being automated."

• Around the time of this clip, the U.S. government talked about creating a centralized computer system called the National Data Center. It would amass personal information on American citizens.
• People worried the National Data Center would create a dystopian state abusing civil liberties.
• Computers were used in the Second World War by German, British and American armies to crack secret codes.

A model employee

Medium: Television

Program: CBC Newsmagazine

Broadcast Date: Sept. 9, 1964

Guest(s): John Diebold, Josef Kates

Host: Peter Reilly

Duration: 8:48

Last updated:
Dec. 30, 2009