Future developments and trends in the data processing industry will have an earlier and stronger impact on aerospace than upon any other segment of industry. The use of data processing by aerospace in scientific, administrative and automation applications typically precedes and anticipates that of society and industry at large. My discussion, therefore, will focus on the total use of data processing and its technologies in our industrial-based societies. First, I will present an overview of data processing in terms of usage and dollars, then look at the world of computers a decade hence from a user's and administrator's point of view. Then I will offer a view of that world of computers from a technologist's point of view, and finally, discuss the impact of such a scenario on our society.

The term data processing industry, as I will use it, includes all those who are involved in providing data processing capabilities: equipment and software manufacturers, programming and operations staffs of user installations, professional data processing organisations, and university and research computer science groups. In short, those who design and produce our computer-based systems and services.