“In spite of the insurmountable computational limits, we continue to pursue the many problems that possess the characteristics of organized complexity. These problems are too important for our well being to give up on them. The main challenge in pursuing these problems narrows down fundamentally to one question: how to deal with systems and associated problems whose complexities are beyond our information processing limits? That is, how can we deal with these problems if no computational power alone is sufficient?”

Source: Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic (1995), p. 2-3.

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George Klir16

American computer scientist 1932–2016

Warren Weaver (1894–1978) American mathematician

Source: Science and Complexity, 1948, p. 537

“The emergence of computer technology in World War II and its rapidly growing power in the second half of this century made it possible to deal with increasingly complex problems, some of which began to resemble the notion of organized complexity. Initially, it was the common belief of many scientists that the level of complexity we can handle is basically a matter of the level of computational power at our disposal. Later, in the early 1960s, this naive belief was replaced with a more realistic outlook.”

George Klir (1932–2016) American computer scientist

Source: Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic (1995), p. 2.

“Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society”

Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013) American engineer and inventor

Source: Program On Human Effectiveness, 1996, https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/mousesite/Archive/Post68/PrHumanEffectiveness.html

“From the computer application point of view the primary problem [of Computer-Aided Design] is not how to solve problems, but how to state them.”

Douglas T. Ross (1929–2007) American computer scientist

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. iii; Abstract.

“When we had no computers, we had no programming problem either. When we had a few computers, we had a mild programming problem. Confronted with machines a million times as powerful, we are faced with a gigantic programming problem.”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

Dijkstra (1986) Visuals for BP's Venture Research Conference http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD09xx/EWD963.html (EWD 963). <br class="br">1980s

“We are dealing with [veterans], not procedures; with their problems, not ours.”

Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II

While Administrator of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs <br class="br"> "General Bradley Speaks of Personnel Affairs," http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112055973280;view=1up;seq=232 Veterans Administration Personnel Bulletin IB-5, Volume 11 http://books.google.com/books?id=Hu5U5jSnPhIC&q=%22We+are+dealing+with+men+not+procedures+with+their+problems+not+ours%22&pg=PT11-PA14#v=onepage (31 May 1947)

“Today our main problem is that of organized complexity. Concepts like those of organization, wholeness, directiveness, teleology, control, self-regulation, differentiation and the like are alien to conventional physics. However, they pop up everywhere in the biological, behavioural and social sciences, and are, in fact, indispensable for dealing with living organisms or social groups. Thus, a basic problem posed to modern science is a general theory of organization.”

Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901–1972) austrian biologist and philosopher

Von Bertalanffy (1956) "General System Theory". In: General Systems, Yearbook of the Society for General Systems Research, vol. 1, 1956.
1950s

“[Computers] are developing so rapidly that even computer scientists cannot keep up with them. It must be bewildering to most mathematicians and engineers… In spite of the diversity of the applications, the methods of attacking the difficult problems with computers show a great unity, and the name of Computer Sciences is being attached to the discipline as it emerges. It must be understood, however, that this is still a young field whose structure is still nebulous. The student will find a great many more problems than answers.”

George Forsythe (1917–1972) Stanford University computer scientist

George Forsythe (1961) "Engineering students must learn both computing and mathematics". J. Eng. Educ. 52 (1961), p. 177. as cited in ( Knuth, 1972 http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ICME/docs/history/forsythe_knuth.pdf) According to Donald Knuth in this quote Forsythe coined the term "computer science".

“Getting old we can deal with. Being old is the problem”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: Have a Little Faith: a True Story

“The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.”

Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) Television journalist

On receiving the "Family of Man" Award (1964)

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