“So, the point was to be able to have a medium that would record all the connections and all the structures and all the thoughts that paper could not. Since the computer could hold any structure in any form, this was the way to go.” WayAbleFormRecordsPaperComputerConnectionsStructureMediums Author:Ted Nelson
“Time spent in nature is the most cost-effective and powerful way to counteract the burnout and sort of depression that we feel when we sit in front of a computer all day.” WayFeelsPowerfulFrontsCostComputerBurnoutTime SpentBurn Out Author:Richard Louv
“But there is a process that happens when you're making something, be it a musical or a new play. That process takes time, and mistakes will be made along the way, and you will go down and hit dead ends. But it is so public now. Any yahoo with a computer can start a firestorm.” WayMadeEndsPlayHappensProcessMistakeComputerDown AndMusicalTake TimeDead Ends Author:Joe Mantello
“Well, I've been recording myself on a computer since I was about 13 or 14. So it's completely entwined with my creative process. Essentially, it allows you to make music that's better and smarter than you are, by using your ears to lead the way.” WayWellsProcessCreativeComputerEarsCreative ProcessSmarterEntwined Author:St. Vincent
“Technology has come such a long way and you could pretty much do everything what's called 'in the box'. It means that it never has to leave your computer.” WayMeanLongTechnologyComputerBoxesLong Way Author:Tony Vincent
“For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.” WayLifeScienceThreeWomenQualityTechnologyFailurePleaseComputerMathematicsPressesListsImprovementQuality Of LifeScience And TechnologyComputer TechnologyScience TechnologyTechnology And Education Author:Alice Kahn
“For many of us, the computer is the means by which we earn a living. To give it a nod, then, is a way of thanking the tool for what it provides in life. It helps put bread on the table and a roof overhead. It gives us work and pleasure, exercises our minds, brings us information, connects us with other people. It is a partner helping us achieve our goals. Nodding also thanks the unseen hands and minds who helped create our machine.” PeopleWayGivingMindMeanHelpingHandsGoalPleasureAchieveInformationExerciseGratitudeComputerToolsMachinesTablesPartnersBreadThanksRoofUnseenOverheadNodding Author:Philip Toshio Sudo
“You’re going to have some very amazing capabilities in the economy. When we have computers that can do more and more jobs, it’s going to change how we think about work. There’s no way around that. You can’t wish it away.” ThinkingWayJobsWishCan DoEconomyComputerCapability Author:Larry Page
“Those are all computational engines that are highly distributed and therefore highly robust, .. We're seeing a very significant evolution in the way we even think about computer systems, let alone specific applications.” ThinkingWaySeeingEvolutionComputerSignificantApplicationEnginesRobustComputer Systems Author:Vinton Cerf
“Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.... I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.... It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.” WayYearsFirstsCountryBeautifulFoundInspiringClassDesignCollegeTenComputerDecidedHistoricalPracticalsSubtleFascinatingCaptureApplicationInstructionReedsMacintoshStanford UniversityCalligraphyMacintosh Computers Author:Steve Jobs
“I write on a computer, but I've run the complete gambit. When I was very young, I wrote with a ballpoint pen in school notebooks. Then I got pretentious and started writing with a dip pen on parchment (I wrote at least a novel-length poem that way). Moved on to a fountain pen. Then a typewriter, then an electric self-correct. Then someone gave me a word processor and I was amazed at being able to fit ten pages on one of those floppy discs.” WayWritingSelfRunningAbleSchoolYoungNovelFitTenComputerPagesMovedLengthPensElectricAmazedFountainNotebookTypewritersPretentiousDipMoved OnDiscsProcessorsGambitFountain PensBallpoint Pens Author:Charles de Lint
“The traditions of Hollywood are grand and great and are going to survive forever, in a way. But they're not going to be the only way for much longer. The technology is such now that you don't have to have millions of dollars to make a movie. You can make one with a computer.” WayMillionsTechnologyForeverComputerTraditionHollywoodDollars Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“Look at our culture. Look at the computer-enhanced people we compare ourselves to. Look at the expensive cars and trinkets we're all supposed to have. Look at how many people are wrapped up in that! Imagine how much money and worry we'd save ourselves if we stopped caring what kind of car we drove! and why do we care? perfection. But there is no such thing, is there? And if there is, then everyone is perfect in their own way, right?” PeopleIfsWayLooksKindCareCulturePerfectWorryImagineCarComputerPerfectionCaringCompareExpensiveTrinketsStopped CaringExpensive Cars Author:A.S. King
“The computer has evolved into a partner, a tool, and an environment--not just in science fiction, but in the public consciousness as well. Computers are no longer malevolent iron brains that manufacture tyrannical and oppressive answers; they are not a way to think, they are a place from which to think. The computer is an environment in which answers can be sought, created, manipulated and developed.” ThinkingWayWellsAnswersBrainConsciousnessFictionEnvironmentComputerToolsScience FictionPartnersIron Author:David Gerrold
“Whether we ever get to know about them or not, there are very probably alien civilizations that are superhuman, to the point of being god-like in ways that exceed anything a theologian could possibly imagine. Their technical achievements would seem as supernatural to us as ours would seem to a Dark Age peasant transported to the twenty-first century. Imagine his response to a laptop computer, a mobile telephone, a hydrogen bomb or a jumbo jet.” KnowsWayFirstsSeemsAgeDarkImagineCenturyCivilizationAchievementComputerTwentiesResponseAliensBombsTelephonesTheologianMobileExceedPeasantsJetDark AgesLaptopsSuperhumanHydrogenHydrogen BombLaptop Computers Book:The God Delusion Source: The God Delusion
“The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.” WayGovernmentTeacherTruth IsComputerNewspapersOnlineCompetentCdsDatabasesGovernment Work Author:Clifford Stoll
“In the judgment of design engineers, the ordinary means of communicating with a computer are entirely inadequate. [...] Graphical communication in some form or other is of vital importance in engineering as that subject is now conducted; we must either provide the capability in our computer systems, or take on the impossible task of training up a future race of engineers conditioned to think in a different way.” ThinkingWayMeanDifferentFormRaceImpossibleSubjectsDesignCommunicationJudgmentComputerTrainingOrdinaryTasksImportanceCommunicateDifferent WaysCapabilityEngineeringEngineersInadequateComputer Systems Author:Maurice Wilkes
“Before computers were everywhere I used record books, the old-fashioned way. I loved to cram, and I still love to cram, anything I write with extra facts, stuff I picked up. At the same time, especially in this day and age, you've got to make it sound like, or read like, you've not just been Googling because that's not fair, that's not right!” WayWritingStillsBookFactsAgeUsedStuffSoundRecordsLike YouComputerFairsExtrasThis DayOld FashionedNot Fair Author:Steve Bunce
“Pen-and-paper role-playing is live theater and computer games are television. People want the convenience and instant gratification of turning on the TV rather than getting dressed up and going out to see a live play. In the same way, the computer is a more immediately accessible way to play games.” PeopleWayWantPlayGamesRolesTelevisionTvsPaperComputerTheaterInstantPensGoing OutGratificationConvenienceDressed UpInstant GratificationGetting DressedComputer GamesRole PlayingLive TheaterGetting Dressed Up Author:Gary Gygax
“Once you can understand something in a way that you can shove it into a computer, you have cracked its code, transcended any particularity it might have at a given time. It was as if we had become the gods of vision and had effectively created all possible images, for they would merely be reshufflings of the bits in the computers we had before us, completely under our command.” IfsWayMightGivenBitsVisionComputerCodeCracked Author:Jaron Lanier
“I have a recurring daymare that when the Glorious People's SWAT Teams smash their way in, most of us - by which I mean members of the general freedom movement - will be caught flatfooted, sitting in our underwear behind our computer monitors, guzzling Jolt and gorging on Cheetos, while arguing with our friends and enemies online about immigration or abortion, two of the issues that the Lefties know they can always rely on to keep that general freedom movement divided and powerless.” PeopleKnowsWayMeanTwoBehindsEnemyIssuesTeamMovementMembersComputerSittingCaughtArguingImmigrationRelyGloriousAbortionOnlineDividedPowerlessUnderwearRecurringFriends And EnemiesLefties Author:L. Neil Smith
“When we digital artists talk about painting on the computer, that is exactly what we do. The paints we use are pixels, the brush we use is a pressure sensitive pen. The colors are the same as painters use, and how we get to the final image is the same gut wrenching way.” WayUseArtistColorPaintingComputerPressurePaintFinalsPainterSensitiveGutsDigitalPensBrushesPixels Author:Donald Lambert
“A reason to have computers understand natural language is that it's an extremely effective way of communicating. What I came to realize is that the success of the communication depends on the real intelligence on the part of the listener, and that there are many other ways of communicating with a computer that can be more effective, given that it doesn't have the intelligence.” WayRealReasonLanguageGivenRealizingNaturalCommunicationDependsComputerCommunicateListenersReal Intelligence Author:Terry Winograd
“I was asking questions which nobody else had asked before, because nobody else had actually looked at certain structures. Therefore, as I will tell, the advent of the computer, not as a computer but as a drawing machine, was for me a major event in my life. That's why I was motivated to participate in the birth of computer graphics, because for me computer graphics was a way of extending my hand, extending it and being able to draw things which my hand by itself, and the hands of nobody else before, would not have been able to represent.” WayHas BeensHandsAbleCertainEventsBirthComputerMajorsDrawsMachinesAskingStructureDrawingMotivatedAsking QuestionsExtendingAdventComputer Graphics Author:Benoit Mandelbrot
“Computer science is the most misunderstood field there is. You are being paid to solve puzzles. For a person who has practiced meditation in past lives, that is the way your mind works.” WayMindPersonsPastScienceMeditationFieldsComputerPaidSolvePuzzlesMisunderstoodComputer SciencePast Life Author:Frederick Lenz
“Think about the way you go surfing on the Internet - you go from one thing to another. You can't really concentrate. I can't sit and read 10 pages on my computer. You'll read and then all of a sudden part of your brain is like, "What about that? ...You're not reading the whole book. You're reading fragments. Even though I think it's bad, I think it's interesting too, because that's the way my brain works.” ThinkingWayI CanBookWholeReadingInterestingBrainOne ThingInternetComputerPagesFragmentsSurfing Author:Ali Banisadr
“The Homebrew Computer Club was the highlight of my life. I was too shy to ever talk in the club meeting, but the way that I could communicate sometimes was by doing good designs. I was very skilled at a certain type of circuit design.” WaySometimesCertainDesignTypeComputerMeetingsClubsCommunicateShyDoing GoodCircuitsHighlightsGood Design Author:Steve Wozniak
“Computers allow us to squeeze the most out of everything, whether it's Google looking up things, so I guess that tends to make us a little lazy about reading books and doing things the hard way to understand how those things work.” WayLittlesBookHardReadingComputerLazyReading BooksGoogleHard Way Author:Buzz Aldrin
“I'm not superstitious in my normal daily life but I get that way about writing, even though I know it's all bullshit. But I began that way and so, that's the way it is. My ritual is I never use a typewriter or computer. I just write it all by hand. It's a ceremony. I go to a stationary store and buy a notebook and then fill it up.” KnowsWayWritingUseHandsNormalComputerStoresDaily LifeRitualBullshitCeremonyNotebookTypewritersSuperstitiousStationary Author:Quentin Tarantino
“Money, after all, is an abstract artifact, like language - merely symbolized by the paper or coin or whatever. If you can fully grasp its abstractedness, especially in the computer age, it becomes quite clear that no group can monopolize this abstraction, except through a series of swindle. If the usurers had been bolder, they might have monopolized language as well as currency, and people would be saying we can't write more books because we don't have enough words, the way they now say we can't build starships, because we don't have enough money.” PeopleIfsWayWritingWellsBookEnoughMightWould BeAgeLanguageClearGroupsPaperComputerSeriesAbstractCurrencyCoinsAbstractionArtifacts Author:Robert Anton Wilson
“There's always room out there for the hand-drawn image. I personally like the imperfection of hand drawing as opposed to the slick look of computer animation. But you can do good stuff either way. The Pixar movies are amazing in what they do, but there's plenty of independent animators who are doing really amazing things as well.” WayWellsLooksHandsStuffCan DoRoomsComputerIndependentDrawingPlentyImperfectionAnimationAmazing ThingsReally AmazingSlickAnimatorPixarComputer Animation Author:Matt Groening
“[In] 2029, I think, computers will match and exceed human intelligence in the ways we're now superior, like being funny, where we still have an edge.” ThinkingWayHumansStillsComputerEdgesSuperiorsExceedBeing FunnyHuman Intelligence Author:Ray Kurzweil
“I write my first draft by hand, at least for fiction. For non-fiction, I write happily on a computer, but for fiction I write by hand, because I'm trying to achieve a kind of thoughtless state, or an unconscious instinctive state. I'm not reading what I write when I wrote. It's an unconscious outpouring that's a mess, and it's many, many steps away from anything anyone would want to read. Creating that way seems to generate the most interesting material for me to work with, though.” WayWantWritingTryingFirstsKindStatesHandsSeemsReadingInterestingFictionStepsAchieveMaterialsComputerCreatingMessUnconsciousMost InterestingNon Fiction Author:Jennifer Egan
“Many cognitive psychologists see the brain as a computer. But every single brain is absolutely individual, both in its development and in the way it encounters the world.” WorldWayIndividualBrainDevelopmentComputerEncountersPsychologistCognitive Author:Gerald Edelman
“That's the way I learned photography: You make your picture in the camera. Now, so much is made in the computer. ... I'm not anti-digital, I just think, for me, film works better.” ThinkingWayMadeFilmComputerPhotographyCamerasDigital Author:Mary Ellen Mark
“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
“Computer science … jobs should be way more interesting than even going to Wall Street or being a lawyer--or, I can argue, than anything but perhaps biology, and there it's just a tie.” WayShouldI CanJobsInterestingStreetsWallComputerLawyerArguingTiesBiologyComputer Science Author:Bill Gates
“I feel certain that the personal computer is as revolutionary in terms of the way it will change the way we work, learn, and entertain ourselves as any of these previous advances.” WayFeelsCertainTermComputerRevolutionaryPersonal Computers Author:Bill Gates
“The Hacker Ethic: Access to computers--and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works--should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative! All information should be free. Mistrust authority--promote decentralization. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. You can create art and beauty on a computer. Computers can change your life for the better.” WorldWayShouldArtHandsMightAgeRaceTeachInformationPositionDegreesAuthorityComputerEthicsAccessYieldJudgedUnlimitedChanging Your LifeImperativesCriteriaMistrustHackingHackersDecentralization Author:Steven Levy
“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 Source: The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
“I've been asked to explain why I don't worry much about the topics of privacy threat...One reason is that these scenarios seem to assume that there will be large, monolithic bureaucracies...that are capable of harnessing computers for one-way surveillance of an unsuspecting populace. I've come to feel that computation just doesn't work that way. Being afraid of monolithic organizations especially when they have computers, is like being afraid of really big gorillas especially when they are on fire.” WayFeelsReasonBigsSeemsWorryFireInternetComputerCapableOrganizationAssumingThreatOne WayPrivacyFree SpeechTopicsBureaucracyScenariosSurveillanceBeing AfraidGorillasComputationUnsuspecting Author:Bruce Sterling
“The humanitarian developers behind World of Warcraft have also discovered a way to bribe gamers into turning off their computers and going outside. If you log off for a few days, your character will be more rested when you resume playing, a mode that temporarily speeds up your leveling.” IfsWorldWayCharacterBehindsComputerSpeedHumanitarianResumesGamerBribeDevelopersWorld Of Warcraft Author:Clive Thompson
“An actor uses his body as a tool and an instrument. In the same way a musician plays an instrument, the actor uses his body to convey feeling and emotion. An animator uses a pencil or a computer to create the same thing, the same exact way... An actor is taking words that are not his own, and he has to bring some kind of authentic life to those words. It's the same goal, to create this authentic life. Even if it's a drawing, or if it's a cartoon, you're still trying to create authenticity because, if the character emotes authentically, it has a power to connect with the audience.” IfsWayTryingKindStillsPlayCharacterUseFeelingsBodyActorsGoalEmotionAudienceComputerMusicianToolsInstrumentsDrawingAuthenticityCartoonPencilsFeelings And EmotionsAnimatorAuthentic LifeEmote Author:Rob Minkoff
“If you start thinking about the kids being born now, for them the computer is ancient history. So one imagines that when children think of it as the only place to be, because there isn't anywhere else, then the geniuses of those generations will find their way into doing something that is impressive and as good as a Shakespeare or a Cervantes. But nowadays, we can't see that. We're not close enough to it yet.” IfsThinkingWayChildrenEnoughKidsBornImagineGenerationsGeniusComputerAncientImagine ThatImpressiveAncient History Author:Robert Coover
“I like the aspect of technology. For me to spin the way I do, I would have to carry five crates of records with me everywhere I go, which in this day and age would be like two hundred extra dollars in baggage fees. All I need now is a hard drive and a computer and I can rock anywhere in the world.” WorldWayNeedsI CanTwoHardWould BeAgeTechnologyRecordsFiveRocksComputerHundredAspectDollarsExtrasThis DayBaggageFees Author:Neil Armstrong
“Steve Jobs did not start started Apple as a scam. But he understood early on the power of marketing. The idea of the computer as a bicycle for the human mind - I think that was something he believed. He believed in making people comfortable with these machines, which is why he spent so much time thinking about how to design them a certain way, how to make them so user-friendly and interactive, and why he spent so much time studying the Zeitgeist.” PeopleThinkingWayMindHumansIdeasJobsCertainStudyDesignComfortableComputerUnderstoodMachinesMarketingApplesFriendlyHuman MindUsersBicycleInteractiveScamsZeitgeistUser Friendly Author:Alex Gibney
“I'm very interested in the way the Internet has changed teenage life. Obviously it's very different from when I grew up, when there weren't even answering machines, much less computers. I was telling my children this the other day, and the little one said, "Did you have electricity, Mom?" and I was like okay, enough, kid.” WayChildrenLittlesSaidDifferentEnoughKidsChangedGrewMomInternetComputerGrew UpOkayMachinesMy ChildrenElectricityTeenageAnswering MachinesTeenage Life Author:Jennifer Egan
“I write fiction longhand. That's not so much about rejecting technology as being unable to write fiction on a computer for some reason. I don't think I would write it on a typewriter either. I write in a very blind gut instinctive way. It just doesn't feel right. There's a physical connection. And then in nonfiction that's not the case at all. I can't even imagine writing nonfiction by hand.” ThinkingWayFeelsWritingI CanReasonHandsFictionCasesTechnologyImagineComputerConnectionsBlindGutsNonfictionTypewritersFeels RightRejectingWriting Nonfiction Author:Jennifer Egan
“The computer is the way I'm making books, but I still think about the physical properties. I visualize the length of a book, the proportions of a book, in material terms.” ThinkingWayStillsBookTermMaterialsComputerPropertyProportionLength Author:Jonathan Lethem
“"Nothing is ever lost" means that what we are now goes all the way back through natural history. We are biological organisms and not simply computerized brains. By focusing totally on the present, thinking only about science and computers, and forgetting four billion years of life on this planet, we are losing perspective on who and what we are.” ThinkingWayYearsMeanLostNaturalForgetBrainFourPlanetsPerspectiveComputerLosingBillionsOrganismsNatural HistoryYears Of Life Author:Robert Neelly Bellah