Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) French physicist, the "father of thermodynamics" (1796–1832)
p, 125
Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1824)
Source: The Human Use of Human Beings (1950), p. 16
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) French physicist, the "father of thermodynamics" (1796–1832)
p, 125
Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1824)
Clifford D. Simak book Way Station
Source: Way Station (1963), Ch. 21
Context: It's not the machine itself that does the trick. The machine merely acts as an intermediary between the sensitive and the spiritual force. It is an extension of the sensitive. It magnifies the capability of the sensitive and acts as a link of some sort. It enables the sensitive to perform his function.
George R. Terry (1909–1979)
Source: Principles of Management, 1960, p. 284 (6th ed. 1971)
John Mortimer (1923–2009) English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author
Source: Where There's a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life (2003), Ch. 28 : Inventions and the Decline of Language
I. J. Good (1916–2009) British statistician, cryptographer
"Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine" http://www.stat.vt.edu/tech_reports/2005/GoodTechReport.pdf, Advances in Computers, vol. 6, 1965
“The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
“There is no difference between machine autonomy and the abdication of human responsibility.”
Jaron Lanier (1960) American computer scientist, musician, and author
"One Half of a Manifesto," The New Humanists: Science at the Edge (2003)
Jack Terricloth (1970)
What Would Jack Do?
Ivan Illich (1926–2002) austrian philosopher and theologist
Silence is a Commons (1982)
Context: Machines which ape people are tending to encroach on every aspect of people's lives, and that such machines force people to behave like machines. The new electronic devices do indeed have the power to force people to "communicate" with them and with each other on the terms of the machine. Whatever structurally does not fit the logic of machines is effectively filtered from a culture dominated by their use.
The machine-like behaviour of people chained to electronics constitutes a degradation of their well-being and of their dignity which, for most people in the long run, becomes intolerable. Observations of the sickening effect of programmed environments show that people in them become indolent, impotent, narcissistic and apolitical. The political process breaks down, because people cease to be able to govern themselves; they demand to be managed.