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9:1
[Refereed section]
Lars Ilshammar
When Computers Became Dangerous
The Swedish Computer Discourse of the 1960s
Affiliation: The Labour Movement
Archives and Library, Stockholm, Sweden
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Keywords: computerisation, privacy,
data act, interpretative flexibility, stabilisation
Abstract:
During the 1960s, Swedish
society underwent a rapid and revolutionary computerisation
process. Having been viewed as a harmless tool in the service
of the engineering sciences during the first part of the
decade, the computer became, during the second part, a symbol
of the large-scale technology society and its downsides. When
the controversy reached its peak in 1970, it was the threats
to privacy that above all came into focus. This debate
resulted in the adoption of the world’s first data act in the
early 1970s. This paper will study and analyse the Swedish
computer discourse during the 1960s, with special focus on the
establishment of the Data Act. The core issues are what
factors of development and what main figures were instrumental
to the changing approach to computer technology during the
later part of the decade.
The article may be referenced as
Ilshammar, Lars.
“When Computers Became Dangerous: The
Swedish Computer Discourse of the 1960s.”
Human IT
9.1
(2007): 6–37. <http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/1-9/li.pdf>
