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“Why didn’t people just use a computer?”
“That was before they had computers,” cried Paul.
“Before?”
“Sure. Do you think people always had computers? Didn’t you ever hear of cavemen?”

— Isaac Asimov The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990)

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Computers

More quotes by Isaac Asimov

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

The Three Laws of Robotics (1942)

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988)

There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.

The Stars in Their Courses (1974)

A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

The Three Laws of Robotics (1942)

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

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Software engineering is the part of computer science which is too difficult for the computer scientist.

Friedrich Bauer Bauer (1971)

A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.

Alan Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

Einstein argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer.

Fred Brooks

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Isaac Asimov (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.