Help me remember this quote about people using technology?

January 18, 2008 9:38 AM

I'm trying to remember a quote from a science-fiction writer (I think Ray Bradbury), about how computers are tools for humanity to express their imagination, or something very much like that. I googled with no luck, but I swear I read (and used) this quote previously, I just can't find it.

The hivemind has had such success with even vaguer queries than mine, so I'm hoping someone can help!

posted by canine epigram to media & arts (12 comments total)

Sounds like something Douglas Coupland would've put in Microserfs.

To wit:

"You are part of humanity. Our species currently has major problems and we're trying to dream our way out of these problems and we're using computers to do it."
posted by logicpunk at 9:50 AM on January 18, 2008

Bradbury is somewhat of a technophobe, and the quotes/interviews I am aware of regarding him and computers aren't usually very flattering. He does see computers as tools, but not as a tool he would need for anything. From a Salon interview:

Today Bradbury continues to criticize modern innovations, putting him in the seemingly contradictory position of being a sci-fi writer who's also a technophobe. He famously claims to have never driven a car (Bradbury finds accident statistics appallingly unacceptable; he witnessed a deadly car accident as a teen). He is scornful of the Internet (telling one reporter it's "a big scam" by computer companies) and ATMs (asking, "Why go to a machine when you can go to a human being?") and computers ("A computer is a typewriter," he says, "I have two typewriters, I don't need another one").

Not saying the quote isn't out there, but I think it is unlikely to be from Bradbury.
posted by never used baby shoes at 9:55 AM on January 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

A bit of a left field suggestion given that he's not a sci-fi writer, but is it possible you're thinking of Steve Jobs line about computers being 'bicycles for the mind'?
posted by punilux at 10:41 AM on January 18, 2008

I don't think R. W. Hamming wrote any SF, but the purpose of computing is insight, not numbers?
posted by hattifattener at 10:55 AM on January 18, 2008

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but it made me think of a humerous video from a long time ago that was about this new thing called, "internet". I remembered the presenter had just discovered it and was making a documentary to tell people. LOL people in the nineties.

anyway, in that the presenter said, "for years, people have said these things will become tools of the human spirit."

Here's a copy of it

it should be good for a laugh at the very least, although it would be better if i knew who the "people" are who've been saying it for years.
posted by galactain at 11:25 AM on January 18, 2008

Argh. Okay, it's probably not Bradbury, and I know it's not Coupland or Jobs. Fuck, this is really going to bug me. It was something that had a very HCI-kinda sound to it (which is why I wanted it).
posted by canine epigram at 11:59 AM on January 18, 2008

Might want to look and see if any of these ring a bell.
posted by JaredSeth at 12:13 PM on January 18, 2008

It may be somewhere in Gregory J.E. Rawlins' works, though admittedly this is a long shot in a number of ways. The two most promising books are "Moths to the Flame" and "Slaves of the Machine".

At the end of The Review of Politics review of the former, Craig Lent writes: "Moths to the Flame thus succeeds on two interesting counts. It provides a lucid and accessible discussion of the impact of computers on society. It also manages to provide a glimpse into a technological eschatology that sees computers not just as tools for humans but as the engines of humanity's transformation."

I thought maybe he was railing against machines by the second title, but the intro includes this little piece of awesomeness:

To the next generation
Both human and machine.

I died from a mineral and plant became
Died from the plant, took a sentient frame;
Died from the beast, donned a human dress--
When by my dying did I ever grow less?

Jalaluddin Rumi
posted by cashman at 12:53 PM on January 18, 2008

It was definitely an author of science fiction.

Jared, thanks, but no, it's not on any of the computer quote pages I've googled.
posted by canine epigram at 1:02 PM on January 18, 2008

"A computer terminal is not some clunky
old television with a typewriter in front
of it. It is an interface where the mind
and body can connect with the universe
and move bits of it about."

Douglas Adams?
posted by pupdog at 1:48 PM on January 18, 2008

Ray Kurzweil? He's a science fiction writer and said this: "Imagination and creativity--some of the higher-order emotional responses like humor, love, joy--this is the cutting edge of human intelligence. That's exactly what machines will achieve when we emulate human intelligence. My sense of that is the year 2030. We will have a fully reverse-engineered human brain and understand how intelligence works." from this article
posted by BridgetR at 3:25 PM on January 18, 2008

Here's some similar Isaac Asimov quotes, if they ring a bell:

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. (May not be accurate)

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.

All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once.
-not related to computers, but awesome anyway.


I read a huge essay where he probably says this in one of his Science Nonfiction books recently (the Roving Mind, not very good overall compared to everything else he's ever written), but I don't have the book with me so I couldn't conclusively tell you what he says. The whole thing is a collection that basically says "X is very important to society," with two-six essays per title which repeat themselves thoroughly. I'll check it in a few days and post if I find anything.
posted by sandswipe at 5:50 PM on January 18, 2008