While logic is used for the mechanics of computer systems, their inspiration frequently comes from mystic cargo cults.
Cargo cults are magical beliefs originating from Papua New Guinea. The Europeans who went there avoided heavy labour. Instead they performed strange ceremonies, in response to which great quantities of food, clothing and artefacts arrived as cargo in ships from out of nowhere. Some villages reasoned that they could divert the cargo to themselves by performing the ceremonies. So whole villages abandoned work and copied European behaviour. They hoisted flags, carried bits of paper about and did no manna! labour.
These outbreaks of cargo cultism were not irrational. They were based on a close study of European behaviour. The cultists aimed to initiate social and economic progress. but unrestrained cargo cults caused poverty, starvation and chaos. So the police had to suppress the cults and put the villagers back to work.
The mystical response to new technology is not confined to Papua New Guinea. It is rampant right here. When the question 'why do they perform better than we do?' is answered 'Because they are using computers' then a cargo cult is born.
Examples of cargo cultism include: 'Let's computerise the sales office because our competitors have' or. 'Let's put a computer in every school'. A computer cargo cult occurs where the objective of the project is unrelated to the function of the organisation. The demand for a computer is framed in terms of the ceremonies of computer use, in the mistaken belief that it is the ceremonies which create wealth and power.
A poorly understood function is readily seized on by cargo cultists. So management is a favourite target. A typical approach is to promise a management information system without establishing what is managed, how, and by whom. Once such a system has been inflicted upon an organisation a host of equally useless systems can be justified as 'front ends'. These are justified not on their own merits but to provide 'inputs to the management information system'.
Once started, a cargo cult is difficult to resist because the motives of the cultists are progressive. Consider, for example, police incident control systems. The stated aims are to speed up response to emergency calls and to provide management information. The reduction of police response times is illusory. The general public takes, on average, 25 minutes to report a crime after discovering it. So, reducing response time from 5 to 3 minutes actually cuts the time from 30 to 28 minutes. While the police might claim a 60% cut in response time, the criminal faces only a 6% reduction in get-away time.
Further the management of crime is not improved by Management Information Systems. MIS techniques are directed at controlling the police, not the criminals. The techniques used can damage the relationship between the public and the police. The police are reduced to radio controlled puppets. Managing crime is sacrificed on the alter of managing the police.
Cargo cults persist until cessation of work brings chaos and starvation. So, hoping that it's all a fashionable nonsense that will soon blow over is a dangerous practice. The cultists' opponents can't turn to the police for help. Nor can a belief in magic be defeated by offering an alternative magic.
Concentrating on the real function of the organisation within its environment is the means for resisting computer cargo cults. Guard against the replacement of content by fashionable style. And never forget that we are all more vulnerable to magical ideas than our day-time selves care to acknowledge.
This was published in Computing on 5th Feb 1987.