Who Takes Care of the Caretaker?

Computers seem efficient, but are they really? To show just how well the electronic brains really work, U.C.L.A. Engineering Professor Gerald Estrin and a colleague, Dr. Bertram Bussell, have set up Project SEE (for Systems Efficiency Expert) and contracted with the Defense Department to monitor a 19-unit, nationwide computer network. Spying for SEE will be a $500,000 Sigma 7 computer, which will examine such computer problems as: how well computers translate instructions into their own language, how organized they are in storing similar bits of information close to one another, how often they unnecessarily repeat themselves in solving problems, how much information they store that is no longer needed, how individual computers share the overall work load on the network.

But who's to say how efficient Sigma 7 is in monitoring inefficiency? The U.C.L.A. scientists have an answer. Only part of Sigma 7 will be checking on its brothers. The other part will be checking the checker.

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