“But the mighty computer is stupid. Thinking with the speed of light but unable to cross the gaps of intuition.”
Source: The World Inside (1971), Chapter 7 (p. 483)
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Robert Silverberg88
American speculative fiction writer and editor 1935Related quotes
John D. Carmack (1970) American computer programmer, engineer, and businessman
Referring to network latency limitations, Quoted in John Carmack Biography http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Carmack_John.html.
“Inflation itself proceeds at a speed faster than the measured speed of light.”
John Moffat book Reinventing Gravity
Source: Reinventing Gravity (2008), Chapter 6, Inflation And Variable Speed Of Light (VSL), p. 102
Dionysius Lardner (1793–1859) Irish science writer
While widely quoted as an example of failed predictions about technological progress and attributed to Lardner, there are no known citations of this line prior to 1980 and it does not seem to appear in his published works. It may result from the conflation, through imperfect memory and oral transmission, of reference to three separate concepts: the real, and at the time new, danger of suffocation by engine combustion gasses in tunnels (and in particular an 1861 incident http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=202 in the Blisworth Tunnel), the hypothetical (and unfounded) fear of suffocation by vacuum in a speculated system of trains propelled by pneumatic force https://books.google.com/books?id=2Tc1AQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA261&ots=lL3eBeyoex&dq=lardner%20train%20speed%20suffocation&pg=PA261#v=onepage&q=Lardner&f=false, and Lardner's erroneous prediction of mechanical failure of trains in the Box Tunnel of the Great Western Railway from over-acceleration due to excess gradient. <br class="br">Misattributed
Mordechai Ben-Ari (1948) Israeli computer scientist
Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 13, “The Future of Science: Surprises or Revolutions” (p. 210)
Jeff Hawkins (1957) American entrepreneur and neuroscientist; founder of Palm Computing
Morning Edition interview http://www.rni.org/hawkins/Jeff_Hawkins_On_Intelligence.mp3
“At the speed of light there is no sequence; everything happens at the same instant.”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
1970s, Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder (1976)
“There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity, which should never be crossed.”
Lewis Pugh (1969) Environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer
Website
“I can transport matter — anything — at the speed of light, perfectly.”
James Clavell (1921–1994) American novelist
André Delambre (David Hedison) to his wife Hélène
The Fly (1958)
Context: I can transport matter — anything — at the speed of light, perfectly. Of course this is only a crude beginning, but I've stumbled on the most important discovery since man sawed off the end of a tree trunk and found the wheel. The disintegrator-integrator will change life as we know it. Think what it means. Anything, even humans, will go through one of these devices. No need for cars or railways or airplanes, even spaceships. We'll set up matter-receiving stations throughout the world, and later the universe. There'll never be famine. Surpluses can be sent instantaneously at almost no cost, anywhere. Humanity need never want or fear again. I'm a very fortunate man, Hélène.
“The hardware world tends to move into software form at the speed of light.”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
1970s, The Education of Mike McManus, TVOntario, December 28 1977