“This elastic market is illustrated by the case for computers in the home. On the one hand are the disbelievers who state that there is only a small range of operations for which the householder will ever need a computer – estimating his taxes once a year, paying bills and balancing budgets once a month an very little else. On the other hand are the optimists who argue that if microelectronics can make mall computers as inexpensive as telephone then people will buy them, even though they are in use for a small fraction of the time. Once in the house, or small office, new uses will be found for them and eventually they will affect life to an even greater extent than the TV set has.”

A paragraph from the “Microelectronics: The Next 20 Years” article in the 16 March 1972 Edition of the New Scientist.