During the past decade ‘electronic brain’ and ‘automation’ have become part of the vocabulary of most inhabitants of this country and of many others. Some users of these expressions, however, have at the most only the vaguest impression of the equipment and techniques involved, of their capabilities, and, which is perhaps most important, of their limitations.

The Institute has been fortunate. The paper by R. L. Michaelson which was presented in April 1953 explained, in considerable detail, the logical operation of an electronic digital computer, while A. C. Baker's paper two years later demonstrated how an installation based on this type of equipment might be used for life office work. Moreover, the Institute has set up several study groups concerned with different aspects of the subject, while from the Society of Actuaries in America emanates a steady flow of reports, for the most part based on practical experience within the insurance companies of the U.S.A.