Albert Einstein? Cell Phone Critics? Pranksters? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A friend sent me a link to a message on a website with the title: “The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived”. The message showed eight pictures of groups of people looking intently at cell phone screens. The people were ignoring one … Continue reading I Fear the Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction
Albert Einstein? Victor Salva? Sean Patrick Flanery? Jeff Goldblum? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There’s a quote attributed to Albert Einstein which I like a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s really his: It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Can you please tell me if it was said or … Continue reading It Has Become Appallingly Obvious That Our Technology Has Exceeded Our Humanity
Charles Baudelaire? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Technophiles have welcomed recent advances in artificial intelligence in the domain of art. Yet, many artists and connoisseurs have been unsettled or openly hostile. One commentator attempted to provide historical perspective by claiming that the famous French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire denounced the emerging technology of … Continue reading By Invading the Territories of Art, Photography Has Become Art’s Most Mortal Enemy
Ilya Sutskever? Blaise Agüera y Arcas? Yann LeCun? Blake Lemoine? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Apparently, a top researcher in artificial intelligence (AI) controversially suggested in early 2022 that contemporary digital neural networks employed in AI systems might be “slightly conscious”. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: Ilya … Continue reading It May Be That Today’s Large Neural Networks Are Slightly Conscious
John Waters? Austin Kleon? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Building a library is an enjoyable lifelong pursuit. Intellectually engaged people are often bibliomaniacs. Yet, many acquired volumes are never read. This behavior has been condemned and praised in two radically different statements that differ by a single word: (1) Nothing is more impotent than an unread … Continue reading Nothing Is More Impotent Than an Unread Library
Marshall McLuhan? Ashley Montagu? Edmund Carpenter? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan contemplated the influences of different types of media on human thought and behavior. He said that television was a cool medium because it was high in participation, whereas radio was a hot medium with low participation. He formulated the adage: … Continue reading The Medium Is the Message
Arthur C. Clarke? Tobias Dantzig? Robert Heinlein? Jerome Agel? Harold Faber? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The science fiction luminary Arthur C. Clarke once said something like: the best way to find the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. I have seen several different versions of this remark. Would you … Continue reading The Only Way of Discovering the Limits of the Possible Is To Venture a Little Way Past Them Into the Impossible
Alfred Henry Lewis? Larry Niven? Jerry Pournelle? Eric Sevareid? George Allan England? Donald Lowrie? John J. Fitzgerald? Hiram Motherwell? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: When the food supplies of a society are disrupted it takes only a few days before extreme behaviors emerge, e.g., chaos, mayhem, and rebellion. An adage states that: There are only a … Continue reading There Are Only Nine Meals Between Mankind and Anarchy
Barry Commoner? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing? Leonardo da Vinci? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? John Muir? Jean Piaget? Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Solomon Short? David Gerrold? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The universe reflects a pervasive interconnectedness. Here are two versions of a pertinent adage: Everything is connected to everything else. Everything connects to everything else. Ecological thinkers have … Continue reading Everything Is Connected To Everything Else
Warren Bennis? Fred Lamond? Jerry L. Benefield? British Post Office Engineering Union? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A humorous and cautionary prediction states that the automated factory of the future will have only two employees: one human and one dog: The human feeds the dog. The dog makes sure no one touches the equipment. This notion … Continue reading The Factory of the Future Will Have Only Two Employees, a Man and a Dog