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Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle Quotes

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Famous Sherry Turkle Quotes

“Terrified of being alone, yet afraid of intimacy, we experience widespread feelings of emptiness, of disconnection, of the unreality of self. And here the computer, a companion without emotional demands, offers a compromise. You can be a loner, but never alone. You can interact, but need never feel vulnerable to another person.”

NeedsFeelsPersonsSelfFeelingsLonelinessEmotionalOffersDemandComputerCompromiseVulnerableIntimacyIsolationEmptinessCompanionTerrifiedLonerUnrealityDisconnection
Book:The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
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“One thing is certain: the riddle of mind, long a topic for philosophers, has taken on new urgency. Under pressure from the computer, the question of mind in relation to machine is becoming a central cultural preoccupation. It is becoming for us what sex was to the Victorians--threat and obsession, taboo and fascination.”

MindLongCertainSexTakenPsychologyOne ThingBecomingComputerMachinesRelationPressureThreatIntelligencePhilosopherObsessionTopicsFascinationTabooUrgencyRiddlePreoccupationUnder Pressure
Book:The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
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“Ours has been called a culture of narcissism. The label is apt but can be misleading. It reads colloquially as selfishness and self-absorption. But these images do not capture the anxiety behind our search for mirrors. We are insecure in our understanding of ourselves, and this insecurity breeds a new preoccupation with the question of who we are. We search for ways to see ourselves. The computer is a new mirror, the first psychological machine. Beyond its nature as an analytical engine lies its second nature as an evocative object.”

WayFirstsHas BeensSelfLyingCultureUnderstandingBehindsObjectsAnxietyComputerMachinesMirrorsPsychologicalLabelsSelfishnessWho We AreInsecurityCaptureEnginesNarcissismInsecureMisleadPreoccupationAbsorptionSelf Absorption
Book:The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
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“Pinball games were constrained by physical limitations, ultimately by the physical laws that govern the motion of a small metal ball. The video world knows no such bounds. Objects fly, spin, accelerate, change shape and color, disappear and reappear. Their behavior, like the behavior of anything created by a computer program, is limited only by the programmer's imagination. The objects in a video game are representations of objects. And a representation of a ball, unlike a real one, never need obey the laws of gravity unless its programmer wants it to.”

KnowsWorldWantNeedsRealLawGamesImaginationObjectsColorShapesBehaviorComputerProgramBallsBoundsDisappearVideoLimitationMetalsGravityRepresentationProgrammersAccelerateReal OnesPinball
Book:The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
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