For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If read more

For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking read more

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.

Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

The great secret of doctors, known only to their wives, but still hidden from the public, is that most things read more

The great secret of doctors, known only to their wives, but still hidden from the public, is that most things get better by themselves; most things, in fact, are better in the morning.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one.