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.

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.

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.

FORTRAN --'the infantile disorder'--, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in read more

FORTRAN --'the infantile disorder'--, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.
PL/I --'the fatal disease'-- belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums.

Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.

Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.

When you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research.

When you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research.

The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think read more

The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back read more

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.

Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.

Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.