May every young scientist remember... and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure read more

May every young scientist remember... and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure of his apparatus to give consistent results may once or twice in a lifetime conceal an important discovery. -Patrick Blackett.

We are the children of a technological age. We have found streamlined ways of doing much of our routine work. read more

We are the children of a technological age. We have found streamlined ways of doing much of our routine work. Printing is no longer the only way of reproducing books. Reading them, however, has not changed...

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

What is research, but a blind date with knowledge.

What is research, but a blind date with knowledge.

Polygraph tests are 20th-century witchcraft.

Polygraph tests are 20th-century witchcraft.

Science is nothing but perception.

Science is nothing but perception.

I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface.

I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface.

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.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of read more

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life. - Inaugural Address.