“It was not easy to have the imagination to foresee that computers were to become one of the most important developments of the century.”

—  James H. Wilkinson

Oral history interview http://history.siam.org/wilkinson.htm by John C. Nash, SIAM History of Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing Project http://history.siam.org/,13 July 1984
Context: Very belatedly in 1947, Darwin [Sir Charles Darwin, great-grandson of the famous Charles Darwin] agreed to set up a very small electronics group [... ] It was not easy to have the imagination to foresee that computers were to become one of the most important developments of the century.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It was not easy to have the imagination to foresee that computers were to become one of the most important developments…" by James H. Wilkinson?
James H. Wilkinson photo
James H. Wilkinson 6
English mathematician 1919–1986

Related quotes

Douglas Adams photo

“I really didn't foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much of course--the computer industry didn't even foresee that the century was going to end.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist
E.L. Doctorow photo

“In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state… It’s become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.”

E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015) novelist, editor, professor

Interview in Writers at Work (1988)

Owain Owain photo

“What effect will all this have on education? First of all, teaching computer skill will be more important - much more important - than teaching children lists of facts. The computer will become the child's memory.”

Owain Owain (1929–1993) Welsh novelist, short story writer and poet
Nicholas Metropolis photo

“Most of us have grown so blase about computer developments and capabilities — even some that are spectacular — that it is difficult to believe or imagine there was a time when we suffered the noisy, painstakingly slow, electromechanical devices that chomped away on punched cards.”

Nicholas Metropolis (1915–1999) Greek American physicist

The beginning of the Monte Carlo method, published by [Necia Grant Cooper, Roger Eckhardt, Nancy Shera, From cardinals to chaos: reflections on the life and legacy of Stanislaw Ulam, CUP Archive, 1989, 0521367344, 125]

Herbert A. Simon photo

“Computers were within my sphere of attention, but only computers used as number crunchers. In spite of the "giant brain" metaphor, there is little suggestion in this 1950 talk that the most important application of computers might lie in imitating intelligence symbolically, not numerically.”

Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist

Source: 1980s and later, Models of my life, 1991, p. 199.

Patrick Rothfuss photo

“Answers were always important, but they were seldom easy.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo

“If one looks far into the future, one can foresee in the 21st century such a time when the U.S. together with Europe will be in dire need of Russia as an ally.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Interview With Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine (May 1994)

Li Minqi photo

“China's dramatic rise as a global economic power is one of the most important developments at the current world-historical conjuncture. Many have wondered how the rise of China will shape the world-historical trajectory of the twenty-first century Will China become the next hegemonic power? If yes, what would the new China-centered global system look like? if not, what would be the implications for the existing world-system?”

Li Minqi (1969) Chinese economist

Source: The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World-Economy (2008), Chapter 1: Introduction to China and the Capitalist World-Economy

Jef Raskin photo

“In looking back at this turn-of-the-century period, the rise of a worldwide network will be seen as the most significant part of the computer revolution.”

Jef Raskin (1943–2005) American computer scientist

Interview in The Guardian (21 October 2004)
Context: I am only a footnote, but proud of the footnote I have become. My subsequent work — on eliciting principles and developing the theory of interface design, so that many people will be able to do what I did — is probably also footnote-worthy. In looking back at this turn-of-the-century period, the rise of a worldwide network will be seen as the most significant part of the computer revolution.

Yuval Noah Harari photo

“In the past there were many things only humans could do. But now robots and computers are catching up, and may soon outperform humans in most tasks. True, computers function very differently from humans, and it seems unlikely that computers will become humanlike any time soon. In particular, it doesn’t seem that computers are about to gain consciousness and start experiencing emotions and sensations. Over the past half century there has been an immense advance in computer intelligence, but there has been exactly zero advance in computer consciousness. As far as we know, computers in 2016 are no more conscious than their prototypes in the 1950s. However, we are on the brink of a momentous revolution. Humans are in danger of losing their economic value because intelligence is decoupling from consciousness.”

Yuval Noah Harari book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Related topics