What was your introduction to computers? In the mid-1960s when I was about five. My brother was doing a maths degree at Imperial College London and they had a huge card operated computer. I bought my first computer in the early-1980s : an Amstrad.
Do you use an Apple Mac or a PC? I use a laptop (a Compaq Armada 6500, 333MHz. I bought a year ago). PC monitors are too ugly and intrusive.
Are computers important? Apart from one job where I had to write in pencil, my entire working life has involved working at computers. But I think their significance can be overstated. It's what you do with them that counts.
What do you use computers for? Writing, faxing, email, research on the internet.
Any favourite websites? I know this sounds odd but I like trawling through the websites of US universities because they have masses of entirely free research reports and information.
Any favourite gadgets? The snooze button on my alarm clock.
Should the net be controlled? No, but it is becoming dominated by US corporations.
Should technology be more freely available to everyone? It will not be too long before the basic technology of computing and communications is going to be virtually free. We will pay for them in different ways.
On a desert island, a human or a computer for company? A human, infinitely more variety and emotion.
What do you see in the future for computers? I think computing will increasingly disappear into everyday products, fridges, television remote controllers, telephones.
Professionally, what's taking up your time? I am writing two big reports about young entrepreneurs in new sectors of the British economy like computer games.
Has email revived the art of letter-writing? No. Email is best kept short. An email correspondence usually requires people to talk and meet as well.
How far does the computer affect politics? Computers have transformed campaigning but more fundamentally the reason that democracy is healthy is that citizens are empowered by education, information and communication which cannot be controlled from above. There can be no turning back to rule by unchallenged elites in most advanced countries in part because of the power of the computer.
