The specialized languages of [social sciences] serve virtually no other purpose than to
conceal valuation behind an ostensibly scientific and therefore nonvaluational semantic
screen.
—Thomas Szasz, 1990
Praise up the humanities, my boy, that’ll make them think that you’re broad-minded!
—Winston Churchill, 1946
31
***
Computing is not about computers anymore. It is about living.
—Nicolas Negroponte, 2015
[The computer] seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.
—Joseph Campbell, 1988
On two occasions I have been asked, by members of Parliament, ‘Pray Mr. Babbage, if you
put into the machine the wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ […] I am not able
rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
—Charles Babbage, 1864
32
Garbage in, garbage out.
—Anonymous
33
I spend almost as much time figuring out what’s wrong with my computer as I do actually
using it.
—Clifford Stoll, 1996
That’s the thing about people who think they hate computers… What they really hate are
lousy programmers.
—Larry Niven, 1982
Software engineering has accepted as its charter ‘How to program if you cannot.’
—Edsger W. Dijkstra, 1988
Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on
top of each other, with no structural integrity, but done just by brute force and thousands of
slaves.
—Alan Kay, 2005
31
As quoted in 1996 by R. V. Jones, to whom this advice was given.
32
This was about his Difference Engine No. 1—essentially the first computer.
33
This elegant twist of the term First-In, First-Out (FIFO) register has turned into a major
principle of computer applications. Created in the mid-1950s, it is typically attributed to either
Stephen Wilfred (“Wilf”) Hey or E. E. Blanche, but I could not reliably confirm these authorships
and even identify these persons.
52
On Sciences and Technologies
conceal valuation behind an ostensibly scientific and therefore nonvaluational semantic
screen.
—Thomas Szasz, 1990
Praise up the humanities, my boy, that’ll make them think that you’re broad-minded!
—Winston Churchill, 1946
31
***
Computing is not about computers anymore. It is about living.
—Nicolas Negroponte, 2015
[The computer] seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.
—Joseph Campbell, 1988
On two occasions I have been asked, by members of Parliament, ‘Pray Mr. Babbage, if you
put into the machine the wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ […] I am not able
rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
—Charles Babbage, 1864
32
Garbage in, garbage out.
—Anonymous
33
I spend almost as much time figuring out what’s wrong with my computer as I do actually
using it.
—Clifford Stoll, 1996
That’s the thing about people who think they hate computers… What they really hate are
lousy programmers.
—Larry Niven, 1982
Software engineering has accepted as its charter ‘How to program if you cannot.’
—Edsger W. Dijkstra, 1988
Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on
top of each other, with no structural integrity, but done just by brute force and thousands of
slaves.
—Alan Kay, 2005
31
As quoted in 1996 by R. V. Jones, to whom this advice was given.
32
This was about his Difference Engine No. 1—essentially the first computer.
33
This elegant twist of the term First-In, First-Out (FIFO) register has turned into a major
principle of computer applications. Created in the mid-1950s, it is typically attributed to either
Stephen Wilfred (“Wilf”) Hey or E. E. Blanche, but I could not reliably confirm these authorships
and even identify these persons.
52
On Sciences and Technologies