WIST Quotations

Paulos, John Allen -- Innumeracy, ch. 3 “Pseudoscience” (1988)

Dave — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 15:39:04 +0000

Any bit of nonsense can be computerized — astrology, biorhythms, the I Ching — but that doesn’t make the nonsense any more valid.

John Allen Paulos (b. 1945) American mathematician, academic, writer
Innumeracy, ch. 3 “Pseudoscience” (1988)
(Source)

Raskin, Jef -- The Humane Interface, 1-5 (2000)

Dave — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 19:00:48 +0000

Once the product’s task is known, design the interface first; then implement to the interface design.

Jef Raskin (1943-2005) American computer scientist, writer
The Humane Interface, 1-5 (2000)
(Source)

Stross, Charles -- The Nightmare Stacks (2016)

Dave — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 01:08:46 +0000

Y2K was a real end-of-civilization problem. And the people who could deal with it treated it as such, working flat-out on disaster management for the last year-long countdown. With the result that the end-of-the-world scenario didn’t happen … causing everyone not directly involved to conclude that it was a false alarm.

Charles "Charlie" Stross (b. 1964) British writer
The Nightmare Stacks (2016)

Hemry, John G. -- The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible (2012)

Dave — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 22:17:41 +0000

“Fast and stupid is still stupid. It just gets to stupid a lot quicker than humans could on their own. Which, I admit, is an accomplishment,” she added, “because we’re pretty damn good at stupid.”

John G. Hemry (b. 1956) American naval officer, author [pseud. Jack Campbell]
The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible (2012)

On computers.

Brigstocke, Marcus -- Live at the Apollo (2006)

Dave — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:58:31 +0000

Computer games don’t affect kids, I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.

Marcus Brigstocke (b. 1973) English comedian, actor, satirist
Live at the Apollo (2006)

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

[Los ordenadores son inútiles. Sólo pueden darte respuestas.]

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

The above is a later paraphrase of the original attribution, in William Fifield, "Pablo Picasso: A Composite Interview," The Paris Review (Summer/Fall 1964):

I feel I am nibbling on the edges of this world when I am capable of getting what Picasso means when he says to me -- perfectly straight-facedly -- later of the enormous new mechanical brains or calculating machines: "But they are useless. They can only give you answers." How easy and comforting to take these things for jokes -- boutades!

Fifield later included the comment from Picasso twice in his In Search of Genius (1982):

He said contemptuously: "What good are computers? They can only give you answers."
[ch. 1 "Picasso, Dali, Miro, Graves, and Others"]

I feel I am nibbling on the edges of this when I am capable of getting what Picasso means when he says to me – with a perfectly straight face – of computes: “But they are useless. They can only give you answers.” How easy and comforting to take these things for jokes!
[ch. 2 "Picasso"]

The latter quote (just the words by Picasso) was highlighted in the New York Times review of the book the following year, providing the publicity for the quotation, and versions with "Computers" substituted for "But they" become frequent thereafter.

More discussion of the quotation here: Computers Are Useless. They Can Only Give You Answers – Quote Investigator®.

Cringely, Robert X. -- “Notes from the Field,” InfoWorld (6 Mar 1989)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.

Robert X. Cringely (contemp.) American technology columnist [pseud. for Mark Stephens and others]
“Notes from the Field,” InfoWorld (6 Mar 1989)