Expert Systems in the Workplace Science fiction writers have long imagined computers with humanlike intelligence, machines that actually think (31) themselves. Well, they’re here, and they’re called expert systems. If you’ve (32) for a loan or a credit card recently or even had a can of Campbell’s soup, you may already have benefited (33) them. Like many computer programs, expert systems function primarily by going through hundreds of "if... then" (34) doing the kinds of simple "thinking" that we use to run our lives. But expert systems tackle questions more sophisticated than "Should I get up now" They help American Express decide whether to issue someone a credit card and they enable Hewlett- Packard to find flaws in faulty disk drivers in 30 seconds (35) than in days. They also help make scores of decisions at Digital Equipment Corp., ranging from how shifts in demand will affect production and inventory, to which accessories a customer will need with a mainframe order. Computer can do all this (36) they are programmed with facts about their subject and with rules that human experts use to make decisions based on those facts. These facts and rules make up the system’s "knowledge base, " (37) is, ideally, similar to the heedful of experiences and information that a human expert carries around. In fact, that’s (38) knowledge bases come from. A "knowledge engineer" endlessly questions human experts, trying to determine the facts and rules that the human uses to make a decision. The engineer then programs the computer’s knowledge base to mimic the human’s. If all goes well, the computer becomes the novice (39) best friend, helping the employee make difficult decisions (40) calling in the boss or waiting until the technician is free.