The use of computers in society offers obvious advantages and some drawbacks. "Virtual reality", a new method of interaction with any computer, is presented and its advantages and disadvantages are considered. The human aspect of information technology and computers as a form of escape is developed, with particular reference to possible future technological developments. The consequences of a weakening of the sense of reality based on the physical world are also taken into account. Finally, some ways to reduce the unpleasant aspects of this potential dislocation are examined. A glossary of computing terms is also included. Computers as Machines The progression of the machine into all aspects of human life has continued unabated since the days of medieval European clockmakers and the Renaissance study of science that followed clocks. Although this change was extremely rapid from a historical perspective, it can nevertheless be divided into distinct periods, albeit rather arbitrarily, based on some criteria such as how people traveled or how information was transferred over long distances. However these periods are defined, their duration has become increasingly shorter, as each new technological breakthrough now takes less than ten years to be accepted (recent examples include fax machines, VCRs and microwave ovens). One of the most recent, and therefore most rapidly absorbed, periods was that of the computer. The computing age began with Charles Babbage in the late 19th century Babbage, grew into interwar calculating machines at the start of IBM, continued through the cryptanalysis efforts of World War II, into Bletchley, and finally blossomed at the end of the 1970s with mass market applications in developed countries (e.g. JapanSord). Computers have gone through several "generations" of development over the past fifty years, and their rate of change fits neatly into the exponential curves of the graphs, suggesting that the lifespan of each generation will become shorter and shorter, decreasing until an unexpected limit is reached . This pattern agrees with the more general decrease in length between other technological periods. The great strength of computers, whether viewed as complex machines, or more abstractly as simply another type of tool, lies in their enormous flexibility. This flexibility is designed into a computer from the beginning. moment of its conception and explains much of the considerable complexity inherent in each project. Precisely for this reason, the uses of computers are now too many to list them exhaustively and therefore only a representative selection is taken into consideration below. Computers are now used to control any other machine subjected to a variable environment (e.g. washing machines, power drills, and car engines). Artificial environments such as hotels, offices and homes are maintained in pre-existing conditions-