Scientists are the easiest to fool. They think in straight, predictable, directable, and therefore misdirectable, lines. The only world they know is the one where everything has a logical explanation and things are what they appear to be. Children and conjurors - they terrify me. Scientists are no problem; against them I feel quite confident. -James P. Hogan.
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Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will read more
Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will always find that the task itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.
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 newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the read more
The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.
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.
The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
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.
However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one read more
However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson: Nothing is impossible.
We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in read more
We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like.
Everything that can be invented, has been invented. - 1899.
Everything that can be invented, has been invented. - 1899.
