A How-to for Have-Nots

An old hand dispenses sturdy advice to keyboard novices

Personal-computer books, that enormous subindustry spawned a few years ago, are becoming increasingly literate. No longer do they require a graduate course in electronics to be understood. Few, however, make a pretense of being much more than manuals. They are aimed mostly at guiding potential buyers through the aisles of computer stores or piloting novice users around the new keyboard.

Now comes a new book that promises to help owners integrate computers into their lives intellectually, emotionally and practically: Electronic Life (Knopf; 211 pages; $12.95). Author Michael Crichton is no self-anointed microprocessor guru but the Harvard Medical School graduate turned bestselling author (The Andromeda Strain) and movie director (Coma, The Great Train Robbery). It turns out that Crichton is also a computer expert of sorts. He wrote his senior thesis at Harvard in 1963 on a mainframe and has since created a computer adventure game and designed software programs for cost analysis and shooting-schedule planning in the movie business.

Because of his experience, richton found himself a growing source of advice and information for friends who wanted assistance with their new Apples and Commodores. He claims that he produced the book so that he would no longer feel like the "help" button on a computer keyboard.

But Crichton aims at far more than simple hand holding. It is his conviction that just as computers have changed his own work life, they will change the very existence of almost everyone else. He believes the eventual impact of the computer will surpass that of the telephone and the automobile. To the author, the important issue is: " 'Am I going to be able to get through the rest of my life without a practical ability to use computers?' The answer is almost certainly 'No.' My sense is that most people aren't going to have the choice of: 'Will I or won't I get involved with computers?' Even if it's just with an electronic teller at the bank, everybody is going to have some contact with computers and it's not going to be O.K. to be afraid."

That said, Crichton manages to create a believable human framework for micromachines. Electronic Life is a casual, alphabetized guidebook, with a brief initiation into high-tech jargon (RAM, ROM, kilobyte) and arcana (magnetic fields, artificial intelligence and dedicated machines). The process is reassuring for the technophobic. "Fear of computers is normal," writes Crichton. "A certain amount of kicking and screaming is useful."

The book's great virtue is common sense. It recommends that no computer should be bought on the promise of what will be available next week or next month, because such promises are seldom kept. A new machine or program should not be purchased until it has been thoroughly tested and the bugs removed. And the author gently reproves old computer hands irritated by the latest category of social bore, the newly minted fanatic. After all, today's veterans were once zealots.

Some of Crichton's suggestions are less practical. He advocates that users spend "a couple of hours" programming their machines as a way of developing their skills. Such a task is guaranteed to induce frustration for many without noticeably improving their computer dexterity. Parts of the book seem out of place in a guide for beginners, such as the two pages devoted to how to supervise programmers. And occasionally Crichton is off base with his advice. He recommends that users buy machines with an operating system that has been edged out by the IBM Personal Computer. Still, Electronic Life is a useful and soothing introduction to the world of computers. And it should spare Crichton some of those annoying phone calls from friends. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.