People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other read more

People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other people.

So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the read more

So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.

Art and science have their meeting point in method.

Art and science have their meeting point in method.

Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his read more

Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a read more

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.

By the time (the Leaning Tower of Pisa) was 10% built, everyone knew it would be a total disaster. But read more

By the time (the Leaning Tower of Pisa) was 10% built, everyone knew it would be a total disaster. But the investment was so big they felt compelled to go on. Since its completion, it cost a fortune to maintain and is still in danger of collapsing. There are no plans to replace it, since it was never needed in the first place. I expect every installation has its own pet software which is analogous to the above.

There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.

There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.

There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find read more

There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.

Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to.

Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to.