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Machines Quotes

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Machines Quotes

“I think there's a fundamental moral issue about whether it's right for a machine to decide to kill a person. It's bad enough that people are deciding to kill people, but at least they have perhaps some moral argument that they're doing it to ultimately defend their families or prevent some greater evil.”

People Thinking Persons Enough Evil Moral Issues Greater Argument Machines Fundamentals Moral Issues

Author:Judy Woodruff

“The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.”

“Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle. Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.”

Source: In Praise of Idleness

“I hate symbolic art in which the presentation loses all spontaneous movement in order to become a machine, an allegory -- a vain and misconceived effort because the very fact of giving an allegorical sense to a presentation clearly shows that we have to do with a fable which by itself has no truth either fantastic or direct; it was made for the demonstration of some moral truth.”

Giving Art Made Facts Shows Hate Order Loses Effort Moral Movement Direct Machines I Hate Fantastic Vain Spontaneous Presentation Demonstration Symbolic Fables Allegory

Author:Luigi Pirandello

“I surrendered my moral conscience to the fact that I was a soldier, and therefore a cog in a relatively low position of a great machine.”

Facts Moral Position Lows Conscience Machines Soldier Cogs Moral Conscience

Author:Otto Ohlendorf

“If we are to become the masters of science, not its slaves, we must learn to use its immense power to good purpose. The machine itself has neither mind nor soul nor moral sense. Only man has been endowed with these godlike attributes. Every age has its destined duty. Ours is to nurture an awareness of those divine attributes and a sense of responsibility in giving them expression.”

“The moral peril to humanity of thoughtlessly accepting these conveniences [of materialism] (with their inherent disadvantages) as constituting a philosophy of life is now becoming apparent. For the implications of this disruptive materialism... are that human beings are nothing but bodies, animals, machines.”

Humans Philosophy Body Life Is Humanity Human Beings Animal Accepting Moral Life Philosophy Becoming Machines Materialism Inherent Peril Convenience Implications Disadvantages Disruptive

Author:Aldous Huxley

“The ethical rule is from Samuel Johnson who believed that maintenance of easily removable ignorance by a responsible office holder was treacherous malfeasance in meeting moral obligation. The prudential rule is that underlying the old Warner & Swasey advertisement for machine tools: "The man who needs a new machine tool, and hasn't bought it, is already paying for it". The Warner & Swasey rule also applies, I believe, to thinking tools. If you don't have the right thinking tools, you, and the people you seek to help, are already suffering from your easily removable ignorance.”

“The most fundamental liberal failure of the current era: the failure to embrace a moral vision of America based on the transcendent faith that human beings are more than the sum of their material appetites, our country is more than an economic machine, and freedom is not license but responsibility.”

Humans Country America Freedom Human Beings Responsibility Moral Vision Economic Materials Machines Fundamentals Embrace Currents Our Country Eras Appetite License Transcendent

Author:Bill Moyers

“Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endangers its cargo.”

Source: William Jennings Bryan on Orthodoxy, Modernism, and Evolution

“I will now claim - until dispossesed - that I was the first person in the world to apply the typewriter to literature. ... The early machine was full of caprices, full of defects- devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. ... He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.”

World Giving Years Firsts Persons Two Character Home Today Found Literature Moral Virtue Machines Claims Defects Boston First Person Typewriters Immorality Degrading Caprice Devilish

Author:Mark Twain

“In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations.”

Firsts Humans Reality Seems Running Natural Moral Morality Machines Interfere Strain Inclination Breakdown Friction

Book:Joyful Christian

Source: Joyful Christian

“On the news that the Tsar had sent the troops icons to boost their morals, General Dragomirov quipped: 'The Japanese are beating us with machine-guns, but never mind: we'll beat them with icons.”

Mind Moral News Beats Gun Machines Troops Icons Boost Machine Guns

Author:Orlando Figes

“Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests.”

Government Political Wish Interest Moral Economy Issues Machines Notion Competing Disturbed Political Economy Moral Issues

Book:The Power Elite

Source: The Power Elite