Imagine a New York office in 1952. An accountant in a black suit transfers numbers from accounts into thick books. His entire world consists of a pen, an abacus, and accounting journals. Behind the wall, a new machine is already humming—the IBM 650. It flashes with lights and swallows punch cards. This machine doesn't yet know the word accounting, but it can already do what was until recently considered an inviolable human craft: calculate faster, more accurately, and without fatigue. According to eyewitnesses, these machines looked more like factory equipment than office technology. For some, it was a miracle; for others, a challenge. Perhaps for many accountants, the new machine initially seemed not like an assistant, but like a potential competitor.
