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Machines Quotes

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Machines Quotes

“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.”

“MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic; their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?”

Men Made Animal Machines Species Peaceful Degenerates Sadistic

Author:Wilhelm Reich

“I am delighted, one more time, by the daring of my species and the audacity of our flying machines. There is poetry and music in our technology, a beauty as touching as that of eagle, moss campion, raven or yonder limestone boulder shining under the Arctic sun.”

Source: Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside

“Building intelligent machines can teach us about our minds - about who we are - and those lessons will make our world a better place. To win that knowledge, though, our species will have to trade in another piece of its vanity.”

World Mind Science Winning Teach Pieces Building Lessons Machines Intelligent Mathematics Trade Species Vanity Who We Are Our World Better Place Intelligent Machines

Author:Astro Teller

“This great increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.”

Source: The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master

“When I'm on the operating table, I'm happy for the surgeon to treat me as a machine, but the moment I return to consciousness I have other needs and aspirations that should be recognized. We're not here only to survive or extend our individual or species life but to do something seemingly more difficult, for which I've used words and phrases like 'love' and the 'Kingdom of God'.”

Needs Should Moments Used Individual Difficult Consciousness Return Machines Treats Tables Species Kingdoms Phrases Aspiration Kingdom Of God Surgeons Like Love

Author:George Pattison

“My own guess is that quite quickly the machine intelligence will start dreaming machine dreams and thinking machine thoughts, both of which would totally incomprehensible to us. This would then lead to each species, we and the machines, moving off on to its own separate life trajectory.”

Thinking Dream Moving My Own Machines Species Trajectory Separate Lives

Author:John L. Casti

“It's no surprise that if you look at the development of the economy, of consumerism, of all these things that have gotten out of hand over the last hundred years, it happened when men were purposeless, when they didn't actually have a legitimate reason to be moving the species forward because the machines were doing all the hard work.”

Ifs Men Years Looks Hard Reason Hands Lasts Moving Economy Happened Hard Work Development Hundred Machines Surprise Species Consumerism

Author:Peter Buffett

“She was an alien, really - a sort of eating, pooping, tantrum machine - and he didn't understand anything about her species.”

Eating Machines Species Aliens Tantrums

Book:A Dirty Job: A Novel

Source: A Dirty Job: A Novel

“Some unspoken human communication is taking place on a hidden channel. I did not realize they communicated this much without words. I note that we machines are not the only species who share information silently, wreathed in codes.”

Humans Realizing Share Information Communication Machines Notes Species Code Unspoken

Author:Daniel H. Wilson

“In the end I came to see that the true prophet of the modern world was Samuel Butler: when he suggested that the machine was an evolutionary development, destined to supersede man as the dominant species and reduce him to greenfly status, the status of machine-minder, homo mechanicus instead of homo sapiens; and to modify his nature accordingly.”

Men World Ends Modern Development Machines Species Prophet Dominant Destined Modern World Homo Sapiens Butlers

Author:Robert Aickman