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Simon, always a fool for simplicity, accepted. Punch took an envelope out of his pocket and scribbled on the back of it. He said, 'This has a simple arithmetical proof but no rational explanation of the paradox.' He gave it to Simon. Simon read it, looked at Punch with raised eyebrows, hunched his shoulders, shook his head sadly, and got up and left the room without a word.

— William Grey Walter The Curve of the Snowflake (1956)

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More quotes by William Grey Walter

The mechanism of learning is of course one of the most enthralling and baffling mysteries in the field of biology.

A machine that learns (1951)

These models are of course so simple that any more detailed comparison between them and living creatures would be purely conjectural.

A machine that learns (1951)

Some of these patterns of performance were calculable, though only as types of behaviour, in advance; some were quite unforeseen.

The Living Brain (1953)

In any case there is an intense modern interest in machines that imitate life. The great difference between magic and the scientific imitation of life is that where the former is content to copy external appearance, the latter is concerned more with performance and behavior.

[Walter even gave the tortoises a mock-biological name, Machina speculatrix] because they illustrate particularly the exploratory, speculative behaviour that is so characteristic of most animals.

p. 43 as cited in: Owen Holland (2003)

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