Robert Venturi book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
2. Complexity and Contradiction vs. Simplification or Picturesqueness
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (1999)
Robert Venturi book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
2. Complexity and Contradiction vs. Simplification or Picturesqueness
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
“Order… is information that fits a purpose.”
Ray Kurzweil (1948) Author, scientist, inventor, and futurist
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (1999)
Stephen Jay Gould book Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (1998) Triumph of the Root-Heads, p. 355
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
Letter to Dr. James Kerr Love (1910), published in Helen Keller in Scotland: a personal record written by herself (1933), edited by James Kerr Love. Paraphrasing of this statement may have been the origin of a similar one which has become attributed to her:
Context: The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus — the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.
Bradley Denton (1958) American science fiction author
Source: Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede (1991), p. 26
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat
The Age of Uncertainty (1977), BBC Television series (also published in book form, non verbatim version)
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
"The Secrets of the Universe" (1989) (essay reprinted in The Secret of the Universe (1992), p. 168)
General sources
Charles Stross The Laundry Files
Source: The Laundry Files, The Fuller Memorandum (2010), Chapter 7, “Beer and Tea” (p. 111)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author
From an undated letter to Piero Soderini (translated here by Dr. Arthur Livingston), in The Living Thoughts of Machiavelli, by Count Carlo Sforza, published by Cassell, London (1942), p. 85