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.

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.

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who read more

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

The Internet is like a giant jellyfish. You can't step on it. You can't go around it. You've got to read more

The Internet is like a giant jellyfish. You can't step on it. You can't go around it. You've got to get through it.

Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, read more

Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.

Pentiums melt in your PC, not in your hand.

Pentiums melt in your PC, not in your hand.

We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to read more

We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or describe how you had the wrong idea at first, and so on. So there isn't any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work.

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form read more

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.

What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within read more

What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within the reach of our resources. Both now depend upon human decision and human will.