The life-span of this technology ran roughly from 1890 to 1990. During this era searching the database meant using mechanical systems to sift through dsthe information stored on the punch cards. This required an operator to load a stack of cards as the database. Most of the cards contained the data in the database while some of the cards contained the search questions. The computers inhaled the data from the cards, ran the search cards, then printed out the result of the search. The card deck was generally unloaded to make room for another database of cards. The user would pick up their card deck and printouts. To run another search, that is to ask another question of the database, meant preparing new search card, then waiting for a turn in getting the operator to load the revised deck of punch cards with the new search strategy.
The turn-around time for the "deck" to be reloaded, the small amount of information that a card could hold, and the system of protection required for the deck of cards created more than just new data. It also fostered a culture that left many citizens angry. They perceived that they were insignificant bits in a highly centralized authoritarian form of administration and government too protective of its own insignificant data sets, a form of management whose narrow questions and answers were out of touch with reality. Punch cards became icons for the distancing role of technology, separating human beings from deeper more personal understandings of each other.
Users of current computer technology must ask themselves to what degree their use of high-technology fosters isolation, loneliness and impersonalization or develops a counter trend in high-touch humanization. To what degree are the questions that are asked today of our information systems authentic and based on real people and relevant to their current needs and interests?