Quotes About Technology

The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.

A satellite has no conscience.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box.

PowerPoint is like being trapped in the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools of Renaissance visual representation.

Only two industries refer to their customers as 'users': computer design and drug dealing

Some argue that the Internet and the new communications technologies are breaking the corporate stranglehold on journalism and opening an unprecedented era of interactive democratic media.

Humans transform the world through our creative technologies, and we cannot survive without them.

I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship, is recorded.

We are entering the Dark Ages, my friend, but this time there will be lots of neon, and screen savers, and street lighting.

No photographer is as good as the simplest camera.

The study of man is the study of his extensions.

Engineers are, by definition, people whose work is dedicated to making people's lives easier; or, as people used to say, whose work is dedicated to progress.

The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist's job to find the ways in which these laws can serve the human will. However, it is not the scientist's job to determine whether a hydrogen bomb should be constructed, whether it should be used, or how it should be used. This responsibility rests with the American people and with their chosen representatives.

Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.

Towards the end of World War II, Theodore von Karman had developed a liquid propellant research rocket at Cal Tech, which he named the Corporal...During the test in which a modified version of the Corporal had reached 80,000 feet, a general who was also observing the test asked von Karman how much higher the Corporal could go. Von Karman immediately replied, "Only to Colonel. Beyond that they don't work any more.

If we define technology as a modification of the environment, then we must recognize the complementary principle of technique: how that modification is used in performance. New objects change behavior, but not always as inventors and manufacturers imagine. And changes in behavior of people, as of bears and dogs, inspire new hardware, which in turn engenders more innovations.4

One of the characteristic problems of our time is how to close this gap between capabilities and foresight.

If you like overheads, you'll love PowerPoint.

The minimum we should hope for with any display technology is that it should do no harm.

There are only two industries that refer to their customers as users.

I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world . . . plant a plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.

Photography suits the temper of this age—of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.

The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.

A digital mentor has fewer errors, without distinctions; contrarily, a physical mentor has higher mistakes and errors, even with distinctive intuition and insight.