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.
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Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, read more
Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.
640K ought to be enough for anybody.
640K ought to be enough for anybody.
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking read more
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), read more
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...' -Isaac Asimov.
Science... never solves a problem without creating ten more.
Science... never solves a problem without creating ten more.
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one.
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one.
Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers.
Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers.
You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than read more
You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions.
... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware read more
... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware of what we are, and therefore of what the universe in which we live really is. And since mathematics, in its own way, also performs this function, it is not only aesthetically charming but profoundly significant. It is an art, and a great art.
