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Home computer sales and
classroom computer sales

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seem to have peaked and
now have hit a flat period.

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And some say they're going--

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I don't think so.

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Oh, yes.

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They've hit a flat period.

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What should that tell us?

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I really don't believe that
they've hit a flat period.

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The computer market has been
and is rising at about 30%

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per year, and nowhere has
there been a flat period.

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It is not rising at nearly
the rate it was going.

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Yes it is.

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00:00:21,930 --> 00:00:22,470
We disagree.

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We're looking at two
different sets of numbers.

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My question to you is,
is the home computer

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destined to become
the CB of the '80s,

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the hula hoop of the '80s?

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Well, I'm glad you brought
this analogy because like a CB,

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it won't be very useful in its
present form, which is just

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talking to yourself
into your computer.

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But like a CB, when it starts
talking to other computers

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throughout the whole country--
when we have several million

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machines interconnected, and
people can talk to each other

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and can exchange views
and can transact,

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can buy and sell information
of services and labor--

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I think it's going to be a
very interesting period where

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we'll have an information
marketplace, a new way of life.

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I quite disagree.

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I don't want to get him angry.

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That won't work.

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I think that the
home computer is

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going to suffer the
same fate, by and large,

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as, say, the home movie camera.

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People had the idea--

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and still have the idea-- that
if they have a very expensive,

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a very good home
movie camera, then

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they can make very good movies.

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You'd probably have to be
a good movie maker, first.

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That's right.

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The trouble is you
have to have an idea,

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and people forget that.

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Similarly, to write good
and interesting programs

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on a computer, one
has to have an idea.

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Ideas are hard to come by.

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Professor Weizenbaum, Professor
Dertouzos-- thank you both,

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gentlemen.

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Moving up on 8/22, we'll
come back in a moment.

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But first, this is TODAY on NBC.