Computers changed everything, and they did it fast. These quotes track the digital revolution from early wonder to modern dependence, with observations from programmers, technologists, and people still trying to figure out why their printer will not work.
“My goal wasn't to make a ton of money. It was to build good computers.”
“This is what customers pay us for - to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We're supposed to be really good at this. That doesn't mean we don't listen to customers, but it's hard for them to tell you what they want when they've never seen anything remotely like it.”
“Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading manuals without the software.”
“We're going to be able to ask our computers to monitor things for us, and when certain conditions happen, are triggered, the computers will take certain actions and inform us after the fact.”
“To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so.”
“Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Inc, which set the computing world on its ear with the Macintosh in 1984.”
“The new information technology... Internet and e-mail... have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.”
“The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. I'm talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a semiconductor.”
“When I grew up we had gym at school, two or three dance classes after school, ice skating lessons, and all sorts of sports at our finger tips. We weren't glued to computers because they didn't exist, so being active was all we knew.”
“Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back.”
“Electronic aids, particularly domestic computers, will help the inner migration, the opting out of reality. Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out there, but the stuff inside your head. It's going to be commercial and nasty at the same time.”
“You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?”
“Computers may save time but they sure waste a lot of paper. About 98 percent of everything printed out by a computer is garbage that no one ever reads.”
“At our computer club, we talked about it being a revolution. Computers were going to belong to everyone, and give us power, and free us from the people who owned computers and all that stuff.”
“My goal wasn't to make a ton of money. It was to build good computers.”
“Nanotechnology will let us build computers that are incredibly powerful. We'll have more power in the volume of a sugar cube than exists in the entire world today.”