“Thoughts are no more than electrical surges in the brain. Sexual arousal is no more than a flow of chemicals to certain nerve endings. Sadness is no more than a bit of acid transfixed in the cerebellum. In short, the body is a machine, subject to the same laws of electricity and mechanics as an electron or clock.” BodyLawCertainBitsBrainSadnessSubjectsFlowMachinesClockNervesChemicalsElectricityMechanicAcidElectricalElectronsArousal Book:Einstein's Dreams Source: Einstein's Dreams
“Lully's machine, Mill's fear and Lasswitz's chaotic library can be the subject of jokes, but they exaggerate a propensity which is common: making metaphysics and the arts into a kind of play with combinations.” KindArtPlayCommonSubjectsJokesMachinesMathematicsLibraryCombinationMetaphysicsChaoticMillsPropensity Author:Jorge Luis Borges
“I think horror should have occult elements, not as its subject but as its ambition. It is a machine that destroys illusion. I, of course, never achieve this, but I always act as if I can.” IfsThinkingShouldI CanCoursesAchieveSubjectsHorrorElementsAmbitionIllusionShould HaveMachinesOccult Author:Tony Burgess
“In order to write about the machine you have to know it, to live with it, to love it (or hate it). I think that true writing could be done on industrial subjects by people who work in industry, who are firmly linked with it. But ... and here is the opposite 'but', the technology of literary craftsmanship is itself a very fine and complex matter. Qualified specialists from industry prove themselves dilettantes in the field of literature. The needed synthesis is not yet in sight.” PeopleThinkingKnowsInspirationalWritingArtMatterDoneHateOrderLiteratureTechnologySubjectsFieldsFineIndustryNeededProveMachinesOppositesSightComplexesLinkedQualifiedSpecialistsSynthesisCraftsmanshipDilettantes Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin
“We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not, or die of despair...death will sweep through all the worlds; it will be the triumph of despair, forever. The universes will all become nothing more than interlocking machines, blind and empty of thought, feeling, life...” IfsWorldFeelingsDiesUniverseForeverFateSubjectsDespairEmptyMachinesBlindTriumph Author:Philip Pullman
“Modern capitalism needs men who cooperate smoothly and in large numbers; who want to consume more and more; and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, not subject to any authority or principle or conscience-- yet willing to be commanded, to do what is expected of them, to fit into the social machine without friction; who can be guided without force, led without leaders, prompted without aim-- except the one to make good, to be on the move, to function, to go ahead.” MenWantNeedsFeelsMovingForceSocialNumbersLeaderPrinciplesModernSubjectsWillingFitTasteAuthorityConscienceCapitalismMachinesFunctionAimIndependentExpectedLarge NumbersFrictionEasily Influenced Author:Erich Fromm
“Space-ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won't triumph over his fate.” HumansStillsLyingSpaceTechnologyFateConditionsSubjectsEvidenceTestsMachinesBlindShipsTriumphGravityHuman ConditionStar GazingTime MachineOedipusDesdemona Author:Arthur Koestler
“My plea to educators and parents is that they should give some thought to the nature of the brain of a child, for the brain is a living mechanism, not a machine. In case of breakdown, it can substitute one of its parts for the function of another. But it has its limitations. It is subject to inexorable change with the passage of time.” GivingShouldChildrenParentBrainCasesSubjectsMachinesFunctionLimitationSubstitutesPassagesMechanismBreakdownEducatorPassage Of TimeInexorable Book:Speech and Brain Mechanisms Source: Speech and Brain Mechanisms
“We know by now that if we make technology the predestined force in our lives, man will walk to the measure of its demands. We know how leveling that influence can be, how easy it is to computerize man and make him a servile thing in a vast industrial complex. . . . This means we must subject the machine - technology - to control and cease despoiling the earth and filling people with goodies merely to make money.” PeopleIfsKnowsMenMeanEarthForceEasyWalksTechnologyKnow HowOur LivesInfluenceSubjectsDemandMachinesComplexesCeaseMaking MoneyFillingPredestined Book:POINTS OF REBELLION Source: POINTS OF REBELLION
“Advice from this elderly practitioner is to forget publishers and just roll a sheet of copy paper into your machine and get lost in your subject.” WritingLostForgetAdviceSubjectsPaperMachinesCraftsCopiesSheetsPublishersElderly Author:E. B. White
“A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.” MenSubjectsEffectsDisciplinePaperMachinesUniversalStrictPencilsRubberPaper And Pencil Author:Alan Turing