Tracing Quotations
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”
Hubert Dreyfus? Stuart Dreyfus? Gary Marcus? Dave Akin? Ernest Davis? Aesop? Question for Quote Investigator: Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been remarkable, but detractors contend that current approaches are inadequate and progress will soon reach a plateau. Critics of AI research have used the following vivid analogy: You cannot reach the moon by …
Carl Sagan? Lewis Thomas? Douglas Adams? Stephen Fry? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Suppose humanity decided to deliberately send a message out into space. What should be included in that message which might someday be read by a hypothetical alien civilization? In fact, the U.S. launched two robotic interstellar probes in 1977, Voyager 1 …
Paul Krugman? Herman Kahn? Steven D. Levitt? Stephen J. Dubner? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is enormously difficult. Will society ever have flying cars, home robots, or cities on Mars? The opinions of enthusiasts, skeptics, and experts are highly variable. The record of most prognosticators has been poor. Apparently, during the …
Henry David Thoreau? Winston Churchill? Marshall McLuhan? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Automation has been occurring for centuries, but the modern age has taken the trend to new extremes. The culture of humanity has shifted dramatically because of the tools created by technology. Here are two versions of a pertinent adage: (1) People have become …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: People Have Become the Tools of Their Tools”
Margaret Fuller? Thomas Carlyle? Henry James Sr.? William James? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Horace Greely? Julia Ward Howe? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous nineteenth-century thinker once delivered a grand affirmation of the universe: “I accept the universe.” Another well-known intellectual heard about this pronouncement and attempted to puncture the elevated tone of the avowal: …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: “I Accept the Universe” “Gad! She’d Better!””
Winston Churchill? Ernest Rutherford? Henry Tizard? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: When access to money is restricted it becomes more difficult to accomplish tasks. Deeper and more creative thought is required to make progress. Here are four versions of a pertinent expression: (1) We have not got any money, so we have got to think.(2) …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: We Have Not Got Any Money, So We Have Got To Think”
David Foster Wallace? Richard Feynman? Sally Grant? Herb Caen? Wes Craven? Garrison Keillor? Henry J. Tillman? Graffito? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Chemists have taken the popular saying (A) and converted it into the comical remark (B). (A) If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem.(B) If you’re not part of …
Continue reading “Quip Origin: If You’re Not Part of the Solution You’re Part of the Precipitate”
Isaac Asimov? Leonard Nimoy? Allen Ginsberg? Jane Kramer? Donald A. Wollheim? Chester Whitehorn? Ric Ocasek? Greg Hawkes? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Nowadays technological changes are occurring with vertiginous rapidity, and I am reminded of statements like these: We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact. There’s nothing to be learned …