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Computers Quotes

53 quotes about computers. Every quote shows where it comes from and how far to trust it.

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Most quoted on computers:

I have bought this wonderful machine- a computer. Now I am rather an authority on gods, so I identified the machine- it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth (1988)

It used to be said of a man who had suffered a catastrophic setback in his line of work that he had been handed his head on a platter. We are being handed our heads with tweezers now.

Kurt Vonnegut Timequake (1997)

The Joker: Do you know how many times we've come close to world war three over a flock of geese on a computer screen?

Alan Moore

Today's computers are not even close to a 4-year-old human in their ability to see, talk, move, or use common sense. One reason, of course, is sheer computing power. It has been estimated that the information processing capacity of even the most powerful supercomputer is equal to the nervous system of a snail—a tiny fraction of the power available to the supercomputer inside [our] skull.

Steven Pinker How Unique You Are!; Is There a Creator Who Cares About You? (1998)

From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.

Grace Hopper

If India is computer, Congress is its default program.

Rahul Gandhi

More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency (without necessarily achieving it) than for any other single reason - including blind stupidity.

William Wulf

The main activity of programming is not the origination of new independent programs, but in the integration, modification, and explanation of existing ones.

Terry Winograd

There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.

Vannevar Bush As We May Think (1945)

If the computer had been a human, its eyebrows would have raised.

Robert L. Forward Dragon's Egg (1980)

The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.

Charles Stross Accelerando (2005)

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth (1988)

Computer-aided design also is not automatic programming, although automatic programming techniques must necessarily play an important role in computer-aided design.

Douglas T. Ross Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960)

With the emergence of nuclear-missile weaponry, cybernetics, electronics, and computer equipment, any subjective approach to military problems, hare-brained plans, and superficiality can cause irreparable damage.

Matvei Zakharov

The idea behind digital computers may be explained by saying that these machines are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.

Alan Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

“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)

If the automobile had followed the same development as the computer, a Rolls Royce would today cost $100 and get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside.

Robert X. Cringely Robert X. Cringely (1989)

The language of the internet is English, and an overwhelming proportion of the global computer chatter also originates from America, influencing the content of global conversation.

Zbigniew Brzezinski The Grand Chessboard (1997)

The objective of the Computer-Aided Design Project is to evolve a machine systems which will permit the human designer and the computer to work together on creative design problems.

Douglas T. Ross Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960)

The dinosaurs disappeared because they could not adapt to their changing environment. We shall disappear if we cannot adapt to an environment that now contains spaceships, computers — and thermonuclear weapons.

Arthur C. Clarke

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