Famous Quotes | A computer does not think, it...
A computer does not think, it feels nothing, and what it is said to “know”—bits of information all cast in the digital mode—has no fringe. Nor has it a memory, only storage room. On any point called for, the answer is all or none. Vagueness, intelligent confusion, original punning on words or ideas never occur, the internal hookups being unchangeable; they were determined once for all by the true minds that made the machine and program. When plugged in, the least elaborate computer can be relied on to work to the fullest extent of its capacity; the greatest mind cannot be relied on for the simplest thing; its variability is its superiority.
- Jacques Barzun
Attribution: Jacques Barzun (b. 1907), U.S. educator, author. “The Masterpiece,” A Stroll with William James, University of Chicago Press (1983).
Categories: Author, Computers, Educator, Mind, The
