This article is not against the use of computers nor against professionals to whom things like the web are their daily bread and butter. Rather, the idea is to emphasise that computers are only intended to be facilitators and can never replace the human brain. Computers do not function by themselves. And as for man, he is also moved by his creative genius.

How well are computers used? They have a memory -- a great deal sharper than man's -- but they also lose it all too quickly partly because of human neglect and partly for reasons of electrical or systemic failure. Their dependability as a store house rests largely on the care with which they are handled. The complaint one hears often is that computers are heavily underused and those with access to preferring to use them as an improved form of typewriter or, worse still, to play game. Effectively, there are researchers and junior level managers becoming experts in computer games because of a combination of factors, thereby defeating the very purpose for which computers are installed.

Scams often build up globally partly because of the almost limitless opportunities opened up by computers. Several books have been written on computer crimes and the kind of criminal activity that is possible with computers is staggering. The present chairman of Microsoft began his spectacular career in computers with an act of manipulation and with his being duly punished for the offence on being detected. Subsequently he has done a lot to prevent and curb computer crime. But every time a scandal or an irregularity surfaces it is clear that computers have played their part.

Yet, it would be quite wrong to blame the various scams and acts of fraudulence wholly or even largely on the scope provided by computers for misuse. It is the human brain which plans the cheating. In the global arena when two major crashes occurred in the securities markets in 1987 and again in 1989 - better remembered as the black Mondays - certain computer whizkids were at play with the scrip prices via the usual medium of over buying and selling. To them the implications for so many investors in different parts of the world did not matter. The possible ruin of pensioners as a consequence did not touch their conscience. It is certain that the emergence of the computer revolution has given an impetus to the kind of cheating that could not have been visualised in the not so distant past when clerks and managers had to deal with vast volumes of paper in the form of documents and files.

Harshad Mehta can today speak pompously as was his wont then and now of the impending globalisation of the Indian stock market but it was he who raised fraudulence to global magnitudes. The misuse of banker's receipts and SGL that Mehta and his minions had resorted to reflected in some way the limitless avenues thrown up by computers. Six years after the massive securities scandal, the CRB irregularities also demonstrate in some way the power of computers. Again, the fault is not of the machine but of the man behind it. Now it is Bhansali. May be, he may have used more advanced computers to commit the same irregularities that Mehta did six years ago. That is not why he is behind bars while the other is not just a free man but is also perceived as a cult figure.

The Microsoft chairman may or may not agree with this but we have the facts before us -- the damage that computers can do provided they are operated by a diabolical human brain. The gargantuan scandals do not condemn computers but only highlight how much they can be used to facilitate crimes. If systems can be corrupted to the advantage of criminals, those who are computer illiterate will be tempted to argue for a retreat to the age of typewriters and manual filing. At a different level bank customers whose accounts disappear just like that would also prefer returning to the time when clerks and managers recorded every transaction manually and made credit and debit entries by hand. In the Bombay Stock Exchange how many times haven't the computers broken down to make a mess of trading, with hardware providers blaming the software people and vice versa?

Obviously, checks and cross checks are more needed today then ever before. When human ingenuity combined with the marvel that computers indeed are can commit all manner of irregularities, the monitoring authority has to be several steps ahead. Their ingenuity has to be of a much higher order. This is the lesson that regulators the world over have to learn - anticipate crimes that can be committed with a mix of human genius and computer excellence.

Finally, we have come round to where we don't find fault with computers but we are keen to find ways to ensure that they only facilitate good work and not acts of fraudulence. Maybe, the reader might think that logically this twist does not make sense. But then, this is surely the world of computers and typewriters and the dusty files have no place here. Those who lived in the past must accept the present and the future. They must learn to live with computers. And it is for us to ensure that computers are used largely, if not wholly, for a good purpose.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.