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Computers Quotes

Browse 214 quotes about Computers.

Computers Quotes

“People don't understand computers. Computers are magical boxes in things. People believe what computers tell them. People just want to get their jobs done. people don't understand risks. They may, in a general sense, when the risk is immediate. People lock their doors and latch their windows. They check to make sure no one is following them when they down a darkened alley. People don't understand subtle threats, don't think that a package could be a bomb, or that the nice convenience store clerk might be selling credit card numbers to the mob on the side. And why should they? It almost never happens.”

ComputersInformation Security
Book:Secrets and lies: digital security in a networked world
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“Animals walk around in a state of permanent religious intoxication. This is the natural condition of the mind and intellect, the moment-to-moment perception, of man as well. I heard some computer fool say that religion is the 'older virtual reality' experience, to justify his scam industry. No, the denuded state of the spirit and intellect, where you walk around 'demystified' and 'disenchanted' is the virtual reality condition, and a terrible condition at that.”

ScienceHuman NatureEnchantmentComputersVirtual RealityAncient GreeceDisenchantmentBronze AgeBernankefiedMaenad
Book:Bronze Age Mindset
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“We are about to study the idea of a computational process. Computational processes are abstract beings that inhabit computers. As they evolve, processes manipulate other abstract things called data. The evolution of a process is directed by a pattern of rules called a program. People create programs to direct processes. In effect, we conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells. A computational process is indeed much like a sorcerer's idea of a spirit. It cannot be seen or touched. It is not composed of matter at all. However, it is very real. It can perform intellectual work. It can answer questions. It can affect the world by disbursing money at a bank or by controlling a robot arm in a factory. The programs we use to conjure processes are like a sorcerer's spells. They are carefully composed from symbolic expressions in arcane and esoteric programming languages that prescribe the tasks we want our processes to perform. A computational process, in a correctly working computer, executes programs precisely and accurately. Thus, like the sorcerer's apprentice, novice programmers must learn to understand and to anticipate the consequences of their conjuring. Even small errors (usually called bugs or glitches) in programs can have complex and unanticipated consequences.”

MagicSpellsComputer ProgrammingComputersSorcery1996Goetia
Book:Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
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“... there was one new metallic monstrosity stacked in one corner that she hadn’t seen the last time she was a visitor to his strange chamber, it appeared to be a mass of hard drives all fused together, but they looked too sophisticated to be merely hard drives. “What on earth is that?” “That’s my Kung Fu,” he said proudly, patting the top of the futuristic-looking stack. “Is that what you wanted to show me?” “No, but it’s impressive, isn’t it?” “If you say so.” Steves sighed and shook his head, so few people could appreciate the intellectual complexity of an almost untraceable hacking device.”

HumorFunnyScienceHumourMachinesNerdGeekComputersGeek HumorComputer HackersNerd Humor
Book:Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
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PoetryTechnologyMistakesChristmasComputersChristmas CardFunny PoemFirst Attempt
Book:The Second Life: Selected Poems
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“I hate computers. My hatred is entrenched, and I nourish it daily. I’m comfortable with it, and no community outreach program will change my mind. I hate computers for getting their own section in the New York Times and for lengthening commercials with the mention of a Web site address. Who really wants to find out more about Procter & Gamble? Just buy the toothpaste or laundry detergent, and get on with it. I hate them for creating the word org and I hate them for e-mail, which isn’t real mail but a variation of the pointless notes people used to pass in class. I hate computers for replacing the card catalog in the New York Public Library and I hate the way they’ve invaded the movies. I’m not talking about their contribution to the world of special effects. I have nothing against a well-defined mutant or full-scale alien invasion — that’s good technology. I’m talking about their actual presence in any given movie. They’ve become like horses in a western — they may not be the main focus, but everybody seems to have one.”

HateComputers
Book:Me Talk Pretty One Day
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“When I was an activist in the 1980s, ninety-eight percent of my time was spent stuffing envelopes and writing addresses on them. The remaining two percent was the time we spent figuring out what to put in the envelopes. Today, we get those envelopes and stamps and address books for free. This is so fantastically, hugely different and weird that we haven’t even begun to feel the first tendrils of it.”

PoliticsHistoryActivismComputers
Book:In Real Life
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