Such a machine would enable physicians to treat many more patients than they now can. In fact, it is estimated that nearly 50 per cent of persons who consult physicians are suffering only from mental illness. Such a machine would therefore be a great help. Problems of Business Another large group of problems for which we can foresee the use of machines that think is found in business and economics. For example, consider production scheduling in a business or a factory. The machine takes in a description of each order received by the business and a description of its relative urgency. The machine knows (that is, has in its memory) how much of each kind of raw material is needed to fill the order and what equipment and manpower are needed to produce it. The machine makes a schedule showing what particular men and what particular equipment are to be set to work to produce the order. The machine turns out the best possible production schedule, showing who should do what when, so that all the orders will be filled in the best sequence. What is the “best” sequence? We can decide what we think is the best sequence, and we can set the machine for making that kind of selection, in the same way as we decide what is “warm” and set the thermostat to produce it! On a much larger scale, we can use mechanical brains to study economic relations in a society. Everything produced in a society is made by consuming some materials, labor, equipment, and skill. The output produced by one man or factory or industry becomes the input for other men, factories, industries. In this way all economic units are linked together by many different kinds and degrees of dependence. The situation is, of course, complicated: it changes as time goes on and as people want different things produced. Economists have already set up simple models of economic societies and have studied them. But with machines that think, it will be possible to set up and study far more complicated models—models that are very much like the society we live in. We can then answer questions of economics by calculation instead of by arguments and counting noses. We shall be able to solve definitely such problems as: “How will a rise in the price of steel affect the farming industry?” “How much money must be paid out as wages and salaries so that consumer purchasing power will buy back what industry produces?” Machines and the Individual