Technology Quotes

"The digital computer is in itself a universal machine in the sense that it can, if properly programmed and supplied with an appropriate memory, be made to carry out any definite rule of thumb process."

"It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers."

"If each operation which has ever been done by a scientist can also be done by the ACE, then we all agree that the ACE can be made to do the work of a scientist."

"A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could succeed in deceiving a human being in a game of imitation."

"Technology is merely the amplification of human capability."

"The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention."

"Technology should serve humanity, not rule it."

"Technology amplifies both human virtue and vice."

"Technology changes faster than wisdom can keep pace."

"Technology is a mirror of human intention."

"Technology without ethics is mere mechanics."

"Artificial intelligence raises genuine philosophical questions about the mind."

"The metaphor of the mind as a computer is useful but limited."

"The lambda calculus is a language for describing computation in its purest form."

"In the lambda calculus, everything is function; function is everything."

"The formalization of logic showed that reasoning itself can be mechanized."

"The question of whether a machine can think is about as relevant as the question of whether a submarine can swim."

"I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted."

"If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent."

"Machines take me by surprise with great frequency."

"The limitation is really a technological one and not a theoretical one."

"If we think of machines as having thoughts, we should be prepared to accept them as having feelings too."

"We shall only speak of machines thinking when the machine and the programme in operation one with the other produce some results that we should describe as thinking."

"The human computer works steadily through his list, but a machine would race through the same list."

"The electronic computer has only just been invented, and we do not yet fully understand its capabilities."

"What is the most significant thing about machines? That they have memory - artificial, perfect, complete memory."

"Digital computers have only come into existence very recently, and it is reasonable to expect that their powers will increase rapidly."

"Digital computers are among the most versatile of all machines, in the range of processes they can simulate."

"The business world has not adjusted itself to the fact of the machine age."

"The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention."