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Danny Hillis

Danny Hillis Quotes

Inventor

Danny Hillis is a renowned inventor born on September 25, 1956. He has made significant contributions to computer science, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Hillis is known for his innovations in parallel computing and the design of large-scale parallel systems.

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All Inspiration Motivation Ifs Internet Needs Should Able Body Built Century

Famous Danny Hillis Quotes

“Global consciousness is that thing responsible for deciding that pots containing decaffeinated coffee should be orange.”

Should Consciousness Responsible Coffee Pot Orange Containing

Author:Danny Hillis

“I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a body of silicon, I'll take it.”

Ifs I Can Body Silicon

Author:Danny Hillis

“I am convinced that we humans are just at the beginning of our journey, on our way to becoming something more wonderful than we can imagine.”

Way Humans Imagine Wonderful Journey Becoming Convinced Becoming Something

Author:Danny Hillis

“Design: holding conflicting ideas in your head without difficulty”

Ideas Design Difficulty Conflicting Ideas

Author:Danny Hillis

“A human body is a conversation going on, both within the cells and between the cells, and they're telling each other to grow and to die; when you're sick, something's gone wrong with that conversation.”

Humans Body Dies Grows Gone Health Conversation Sick Cells Healthcare Human Body World Health

Author:Danny Hillis

“If transportation technology was moving along as fast as microprocessor technology, then the day after tomorrow I would be able to get in a taxi cab and be in Tokyo in 30 seconds.”

Ifs Inspiration Would Be Able Moving Motivation Technology Tomorrow Seconds Transportation Taxi Cab Tokyo Taxi Cabs Microprocessor

Author:Danny Hillis

“A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: "You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong." Knight turned the machine off and on. The machine worked.”

Trying Understanding Seeing Students Broken Machines Spokes Statistics Knights Cycling Novices Lisp

Author:Danny Hillis

“People are mostly focused on defending the computers on the Internet, and there's been surprisingly little attention to defending the Internet itself as a communications medium. And I think we probably do need to pay some more attention to that, because it's actually kind of fragile.”

People Needs Kind Littles Inspiration Motivation Pay Attention Communication Internet Computer Focused Mediums Fragile Focused Attention

Author:Danny Hillis

“Your genome knows much more about your medical history than you do.”

Knows Inspiration Motivation Medical Healthcare Genome Medical History

Author:Danny Hillis

“If you hear an expert talking about the Internet and saying it [does] this, or it will do that, you should treat it with the same skepticism that you might treat the comments of an economist about the economy or a weatherman about the weather.”

Ifs Should Doe Inspiration Might Motivation Talking Economy Internet Treats Weather Experts Comment Skepticism Economist Weathermen

Author:Danny Hillis

“Technology is everything that doesn’t work yet.”

Author:Danny Hillis

“Last century, when the beams needed replacing, carpenters used oak trees that had been planted in 1386 when the dining hall was first built. The 14th-century builder had planted the trees in anticipation of the time, hundreds of years in the future, when the beams would need replacing. Did the carpenters plant new trees to replace the beams again a few hundred years from now?”

Needs Years Firsts Lasts Used Tree Century Needed Hundred Built Plant Halls Anticipation Oaks Beam Builder Dining Carpenter Oak Tree

Author:Danny Hillis

“I want to build a clock that ticks once a year. The century hand advances once every one hundred years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. I want the cuckoo to come out every millennium for the next 10,000 years. If I hurry I should finish the clock in time to see the cuckoo come out for the first time.”

Ifs Want Should Years Firsts Hands Next Century Hundred First Time Clock Tick Millennium Cuckoos

Author:Danny Hillis

“The computers are in control. We just live in their world.”

World Computer Just Live

Author:Danny Hillis

“An attitude of only taking what you need was built into the protocols of the Internet itself.”

Needs Attitude Internet Built Protocol

Author:Danny Hillis

“What we need is a plan B ... independent of the Internet. [It] doesn't necessarily have to have the performance of the Internet, but the police department has to be able to call up the fire department.”

Needs Inspiration Able Motivation Fire Plans Internet Performances Police Independent Department Plan B Police Department Fire Department

Author:Danny Hillis

“[Language is] really a pretty amazing invention if you think about it. Here I have a very complicated, messy, confused idea in my head. I'm sitting here making grunting sounds and hopefully constructing a similar messy, confused idea in your head that bears some analogy to it.”

Ifs Thinking Ideas Inspiration Motivation Language Sound Bears Sitting Complicated Invention Hopefully Confused Messy Analogies

Author:Danny Hillis

“We're at a point in time which is analogous to when single-celled organisms were turning into multi-celled organisms. So we're the amoebas.”

Inspiration Motivation Organisms

Author:Danny Hillis

About the Author

Born: September 25, 1956
Known for: Inventor
Quotes: 18

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