Quotes About Technology

As charming as the room was, I knew it wouldn't work for me. I do not need charming. I need to be online, at all times. I need surge protection.

Computers had their origin in military cryptography—in a sense, every computer game represents the commandeering of a military code-breaking apparatus for purposes of human expression.

Could you make a computer imagine an entire world? How would you start? A generation of people would wrestle with this problem—they're still wrestling with it.

Let us say in its favor that though it is nonsense, it is gorgeous nonsense, and it does not lead us down slow cold steps to worship a tyrant in his tomb; and that at least there have never been Unicorn Riots, Unicorn Wars, Unicorn Persecutions, Unicorn Plagues, Unicorn Famines. A scholar in his study studying unicorns will compass no one's death in the sacred names of Science and Technology. Perhaps we are where we are because we have no more unicorns. Onward.

There are no defenders of man's mind—in the world's greatest scientific-technological civilization. All that is left is a battle between the mystics of spirit and the mystics of muscle—between men guided by their feelings and men guided by their reflexes.

Let anyone who believes that a high standard of living is the achievement of labor unions and government controls ask himself the following question: If one had a "time machine" and transported the united labor chieftains of America, plus three million government bureaucrats, back to the tenth century—would they be able to provide the medieval serf with electric light, refrigerators, automobiles, and television sets?

It is only in the realm of pure science that truth is an absolute criterion. When we deal with applied science, with technology—we deal with people. And when we deal with people, considerations other than truth enter the question.

He has to survive this, if only to avoid having his digital corpse kicked to pieces by those grunting, knuckle-dragging troglodytes otherwise known as commenters.

Books are no longer read but eaten, not made of paper but of some informational substance, fully digestible, sugar-coated.

I had noticed that I had no difficulty conversing with robots, because absolutely nothing surprised them. They were incapable of surprise. A very sensible quality.

Anyhow, the criterion of common sense was never applicable to the history of the human race. Averroës, Kant, Socrates, Newton, Voltaire, could any of them have believed it possible that in the twentieth century the scourge of cities, the poisoner of lungs, the mass murderer and idol of millions would be a metal receptacle on wheels, and that people would actually prefer being crushed to death inside it during frantic weekends exoduses instead of staying, safe and sound, at home?

Czy je?eli ludo?erca je no?em i widelcem - to post?p?

Mi chiedo se Averroè, Kant, Socrate, Newton, Voltaire avrebbero mai creduto che nel Ventesimo secolo la piaga delle città, l'avvelenatore dei polmoni, l'omicida di massa, l'oggetto di culto sarebbe diventato un carrello di lamiera con le ruote e che le persone avrebbero preferito morire schiantate al suo interno durante gli esodi di massa per i fine settimana, anzichè restarsene tranquillamente a casa.

it gave me a little plastic book with four fold-outs, maps of the city's transit system. When I wanted to go somewhere, I touched the silver-printed name - street, level, square - and instantly on the map a circuit of all the necessary connections lit up. I could also travel by gleeder. Or by rast. Or - finally - on foot; therefore, four maps

Im wy?sza w galaktyce cywilizacja, tym wi?cej tam na?miecono.

And Trurl began to catch atoms, peeling their electrons and mixing their protons with such nimble speed, that his fingers were a blur, and he stirred the subatomic dough, stuck all the electrons back in, then on to the next molecule.

The only way to deal with technology is with another technology. Man knows more about his dangerous tendencies than he did a hundred years ago, and in the next hundred years, his knowledge will be even more advanced. Then he will make use of it.

For truly, what computer has not asked whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous instructions?

Manufacturers these days have peculiar problems: a package may recommend the virtues of its product by voice only, for it is not allowed to grab the customer by the sleeve or collar.

Ale on jest przecie? rozstrojony. Elektryczny wariat... - ?adny wariat. ByÅ'eÅ› w sterowni? - Nie. Tu byÅ'em. - No. A ja byÅ'em. Szkoda, ?e nie widziaÅ'eÅ›, jak rozwalaÅ' nasze sondy. - To znaczy, ?e jak? Å»e oni go przestroili? Å»e jest ju? pod ich kontrolÄ…? Wszyscy mówiÄ… oni - pomyÅ›laÅ' Rohan. Jakby to naprawdÄ™ byÅ'y ?ywe, rozumne istoty... - A proton go wie. Podobno tylko siÄ™ rozstroiÅ'a Å'Ä…czno??.

A real tank now costs about a million dollars, while a hallucinated one amounts to less than one-hundredth of a cent per person, or centispecter per spectator. A destroyer costs a dime. Today you could fit the whole arsenal of the United States inside a single truck.

When that voice, though freely resounding, cannot be heard, because the technologies of information have led to a situation in which one can receive best the message of him who shouts the loudest, even when the most falsely?

Thus the means of civilization replace its ends, and human conveniences substitute for human values.

On the one hand, we have no choice but to trust in our technology. Without it we would never have set foot on the Moon. But . . . sometimes we have to pay a high price for that trust.