A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history--with the possible exceptions of handguns and read more

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history--with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.

If you put garbage in a computer nothing comes out but garbage. But this garbage, having passed through a very read more

If you put garbage in a computer nothing comes out but garbage. But this garbage, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and none dare criticize it.

...there is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap. read more

...there is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap. But the difference is that once you've made the intuitive leap you have to justify it by filling in the intermediate steps. In my case, it often happens that I have an idea, but then I try to fill in the intermediate steps and find that they don't work, so I have to give it up.

In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." read more

In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.

As nuclear and other technological achievements continue to mount, the normal life span will continue to climb. The hourly productivity read more

As nuclear and other technological achievements continue to mount, the normal life span will continue to climb. The hourly productivity of the worker will increase.

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.

Pentiums melt in your PC, not in your hand.

Pentiums melt in your PC, not in your hand.

Multimedia? As far as I'm concerned, it's reading with the radio on!

Multimedia? As far as I'm concerned, it's reading with the radio on!

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.