“Computers: Not the Greatest Discovery of the Twentieth Century” Nothing epitomizes modern life better than the computer. For better or worse, computers have infiltrated every aspect of our society. Today, computers do much more than simply compute. Supermarket scanners calculate our grocery bill while keeping store inventory, computerized telephone switching centers play traffic cop to millions of calls and keep lines of communication untangled, and automatic teller machines let us conduct banking transactions from virtually an ....