The pacing is slow compared to what we're used to now & it's rather wordy, but basically this is an early but not at all bad story illustrating the dangers of the over-reliance on computers. As so often, there's a group (including politicians) that think the computer is their magic bullet for security. That if you feed in everything you know about people (no matter how personal & private) the machine will make an accurate decision on who is a security risk. (There's also a blink & you'll miss it reference to rolling this out across the entire population - like a thought crime unit!)
As the programmers say though, garbage in, garbage out, and Quist eventually proves that you need a human with intelligence and experience to make a *good* decision.
Not a bad cautionary tale, especially if you consider the times and that most viewers had yet to encounter computers in their daily life. Hopefully it made a few people think, or push back if they ever encountered a similar "the computer knows best" scenario.
As the programmers say though, garbage in, garbage out, and Quist eventually proves that you need a human with intelligence and experience to make a *good* decision.
Not a bad cautionary tale, especially if you consider the times and that most viewers had yet to encounter computers in their daily life. Hopefully it made a few people think, or push back if they ever encountered a similar "the computer knows best" scenario.
