“To many of us now, computers, silicon chips, data processing, cybernetics, and all the other innovations of the dawning high technology age are as mystifying as the workings of the combustion engine must have been when that first Model T rattled down Main Street, U.S.A. But as surely as America's pioneer spirit made us the industrial giant of the 20th century, the same pioneer spirit today is opening up on another vast front of opportunity, the frontier of high technology.” FirstsHas BeensMadeAgeTodayAmericaSpiritOpportunityTechnologyStreetsCenturyFrontsComputerModelsInnovationOpeningDataGiantsEngines20th CenturyChipsFrontiersPioneersProcessingSiliconOpening UpCyberneticsMain StreetCombustionHigh TechnologyPioneer SpiritModel T Author:Ronald Reagan
“Centralization of society's vital services in giant computer centers, reservoirs, nuclear power plants, air- traffic control centers, 100-story skyscrapers, and government compounds increases its vulnerability. ... choosing his targets, today's saboteur could pollute a city's water supply, dynamite power transmission towers, cripple an airport control center, destroy a corporate or government computer center.” StoriesGovernmentTodayWaterCitiesAirComputerIncreasePlantNuclearCorporateVulnerabilityGiantsTargetTowersTrafficAirportsCompoundsTransmissionNuclear PowerReservoirsCripplesDynamiteSkyscraperPower PlantsCentralizationSaboteursAir Traffic ControlTraffic Control Author:Anatol Rapoport
“Cloud computing offers individuals access to data and applications from nearly any point of access to the Internet, offers businesses a whole new way to cut costs for technical infrastructure, and offers big computer companies a potentially giant market for hardware and services.” WayWholeBigsIndividualCompanyCuttingInternetCostOffersComputerCloudsAccessDataGiantsApplicationNew WaysInfrastructureComputingHardwareCloud Computing Author:Jamais Cascio
“If chess is a vast jungle, computers are the chainsaws in a giant environmentally insensitive logging company.” IfsCompanyComputerChessGiantsJungleInsensitiveChainsawLogging Author:Nigel Short
“The cell phone has transformed public places into giant phone-a-thons in which callers exist within narcissistic cocoons of private conversations. Like faxes, computer modems and other modern gadgets that have clogged out lives with phony urgency, cell phones represent the 20th Century's escalation of imaginary need. We didn't need cell phones until we had them. Clearly, cell phones cause not only a breakdown of courtesy, but the atrophy of basic skills.” NeedsCausesModernCenturySkillsConversationComputerPhonesCellsGiantsTransformedImaginary20th CenturyCourtesyNarcissisticCell PhoneUrgencyBreakdownPhonyGadgetsCocoonsAtrophyFaxEscalation Author:Mary Schmich
“Artificial intelligence uses a complex set of rules - algorithms - to get to a conclusion. A computer has to calculate its way through all those rules, and that takes a lot of processing. So AI works best when a small computer is using it on a small problem - your car's anti-lock brakes are based on AI. Or you need to use a giant computer on a big problem - like IBM using a room-size machine to compete against humans on Jeopardy in 2011.” WayNeedsHumansUseProblemBigsRoomsCarComputerMachinesComplexesSizeConclusionGiantsArtificial IntelligenceArtificialLocksBig ProblemsProcessingAlgorithmsBrakeJeopardyIbmSmall Problems Author:Kevin Maney
“Manufacturing takes place in very large facilities. If you want to build a computer chip, you need a giant semiconductor fabrication facility. But nature can grow complex molecular machines using nothing more than a plant.” IfsWantNeedsGrowsComputerMachinesPlantComplexesGiantsChipsFacilityManufacturingFabricationSemiconductors Author:Ralph Merkle
“People are craving this great progress in electronics, going after computers, the Internet, etc. It's a giant progress technologically. But they must have a balance of soul, a balance for human beauty. That means art has an important role.” PeopleHumansMeanArtImportantSoulRolesProgressInternetBalanceComputerGiantsEtcCravingElectronicsGreat Progress Author:Mstislav Rostropovich
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” PeoplePersonsImportantInspiringRightsComputerRacismMachinesPropertyProfitMotiveGiantsMaterialismIncapableProperty RightsMilitarismBreaking SilenceProfit MotiveTriplet Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.