Abstract
"Computers are destined, we believe, to go in two diametrically opposed directions. One kind will get smaller and smaller, and lower and lower in cost, so that all of us are going to have desk top computers just as we now have desk top calculators, and typewriters, and copiers. The other will get larger and larger and faster and faster — and more and more expensive. The end result will be the great interconnected computer utility of the future ...and the first question the small group of men controlling this monster will ask will be, 'IS there a God?' There will be a slight pause, then a tremendous noise, and a sepulchral voice will intone, 'NOW, THERE IS.'" | There is no question the computer casts a long shadow over the happenings of our everyday lives — and that the shadow will get larger before it begins to shrink, if indeed, it ever will begin to shrink. There are some 35,000 computers in use in the United States today. Computers are a $2-3 billion dollar industry — third largest in the United States, behind steel and automobiles. Forecasters peg it as a $20 billion industry within ten-twenty years. (Less than twenty years ago, in what could be classed as one of history's poorest predictions, the first computer producers estimated the total market for their product might run as high as 100 units!) | Readily apparent reasons for this astounding growth include incredibly rapid technological advances in the electronic data processing field, the accompanying host of applications made possible by these advancements and the imaginative managerial utilization of the technology. | One area from this ever-widening range of computer applications has been selected for treatment in this paper: computer letter direct mail advertising. Computer letters are simply personalized letters produced or "typed" at high speed on a computer (in upper and lower case) and giving the appearance of a personal letter. They are a relatively new technique, dating back only four or five years and used in any appreciable amount only within the past three years.