Artificial Intelligence
The survival of man depends on the early construction of an ultra-intelligent machine.
— Irving John Good, Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine, 1963
Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them.
— Albert Einstein
The question of whether Machines Can Think… is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.
—Edsger W. Dijkstra
Reading
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
— Logan Pearsall Smith
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
— Albert Einstein
Introspection
I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don’t know why I do things.
— J.B.S. Haldane
Error
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
— Samuel Beckett
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
— Voltaire
The road to wisdom? — Well, it’s plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
— Piet Hein
Ethics
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
— Albert Einstein
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves — such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty. The ordinary objects of human endeavor — property, outward success, luxury — have always seemed to me contemptible.
— Albert Einstein
Mysticism
But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line
So it’s much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
And resign to be trapped on a leaf in a vine.
— Brian Eno, Backwater, 1977
Computers
The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.
—Donald Knuth
