Cybernetic Celebration

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31662, 24 April 1968, Page 2

Cybernetic Celebration

A computer has decided who will go with whom to a ball to be held by a group of physics students of the University of Canterbury on Friday evening.

All the 340 “tickets” issued have been sold for the ball, the first of its kind in Christchurch—and probably in New Zealand.

“The idea grew from a discussion we had recently on match-making by computer in the United States,” Mr R. Malcolm, organiser of the ball, said last evening. QUESTIONNAIRE

"A simple questionnaire was drafted, requesting such information as the 'age, height, sporting activities, tastes in music, theatre, books, dancing, and drinks of the applicant, as well as political and religious affiliations,” he said. “We bad to stick to basic facts; opinions would have made the information too unwieldiy to handle.” Advertisements for the Computer Ball, distributed at the two campuses of the University of Canterbury, caught the imagination of students. I More women than men applied to buy questionnaires to fill in, but the numbers have now been evened. Only couples will be admitted to the ball. Information from returned questionnaires was fed into a computer and individual punch cards were sent to applicants as their invitations. “BLIND DATE” Each man was given the name of the girl selected for him by the computer from the guest list. It was then up to him to arrange to escort her to the ball. The ball committee met problems. The computer they were using at the University of Canterbury broke down temporarily, so they made a

trip to Dunedin and got permission to use the University of Otago’s machine. USEFUL EXPERIMENT

“This new use of computers was a great help to several .students in learning how to use them,” Mr Malcolm said. “Some of the information we got is expected to be useful to the Sociology Department.” The ball will be held at the Brevet Club and the proceeds will go to the World University Service’s funds.