Part quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 F_Terry_Baker
- 2 Friedrich_Ludwig_Bauer
- 3 Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
- 4 Robert_N_Britcher
- 5 Fred_Brooks
- 6 Euclid
- 7 Kurt_Gödel
- 8 Pierre-Simon_Laplace
- 9 Alan_Perlis
- 10 Steven_Pinker
- 11 Karl_Popper
- 12 Willard_Van_Orman_Quine
- 13 Jef_Raskin
- 14 Bertrand_Russell
- 15 Franz_Selig
- 16 Claude_Shannon
- 17 Rupert_Sheldrake
- 18 Herbert_Simon
- 19 Adam_Smith
- 20 Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
- 21 Alan_Turing
- 22 Gerald_Weinberg
F_Terry_Baker
Code Library
“The most important of these is a development support library which encourages the visibility and manageability of the product, as well as reduces clerical effort on the part of the programmers. The library is typically maintained and operated by a programming librarian who serves to control the programming assets and to provide the necessary services for both programmers and management. As a result of its use, the entire project is maintained in a centralized, up-to-date, visible form which makes its status immediately apparent to code-competent software managers and makes it possible for programmers to answer their questions directly without relying on others.”
- Source: Baker, F. T. (1975). Software Management Through Improved Programming Technology. ACM ’75: Proceedings of the 1975 Annual Conference, 286–287. https://doi.org/10.1145/800181.810346
- Keywords: Programming_quotes Productivity_quotes Library_quotes Source_Code_quotes Important_quotes Development_quotes Support_quotes Encourage_quotes Visible_quotes Management_quotes Product_quotes Reduce_quotes Clerical_quotes Effort_quotes Part_quotes Programmer_quotes Typical_quotes Maintain_quotes Operate_quotes Librarian_quotes Serve_quotes Control_quotes Asset_quotes Provide_quotes Service_quotes Necessary_quotes Result_quotes Use_quotes Entire_quotes Project_quotes Centralize_quotes Up_to_date_quotes Form_quotes Make_quotes Status_quotes Immediate_quotes Apparent_quotes Code_quotes Competent_quotes Software_quotes Manager_quotes Possible_quotes Answer_quotes Question_quotes Direct_quotes Rely_quotes
Friedrich_Ludwig_Bauer
Software Engineering Too Difficult
“Software engineering is the part of computer science which is too difficult for the computer scientist.”
- Source: [Bauer; 1972]. A paper entitled Software Engineering. Written by Friedrich Ludwig Bauer. Published 1972 in Information Processing 71: Proceedings of Ifip Congress 1971, volume 1. ISBN: 9780720420630.
- See Also:
Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
Stupidity Power
“Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other.”
- Source: From the paper “An Account at the Turn of the Year 1942-1943” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, contained within the book “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Volume 8: Letters and Papers from Prison” edited by John W. Gruchy, et al. Published in 2009 by Fortress Press.
- Keywords: Stupid_quotes Close_quotes Observation_quotes Apparent_quotes Every_quotes Strong_quotes Upsurge_quotes Power_quotes Public_quotes Sphere_quotes Political_quotes Religious_quotes Nature_quotes Infect_quotes Large_quotes Part_quotes Humankind_quotes Seem_quotes Virtual_quotes Sociology_quotes Psychology_quotes Law_quotes One_quotes Other_quotes
Robert_N_Britcher
Human Element
“The real scoop on programming and software is the human element. I didn't know Alan Turing or John von Neuman or the other inventors, but I've known plenty of programmers. We are just like everyone, part this, part that. Except we have to deal with enormous complexity, which springs upon us only after we are too far into what started out to be kind of fun - coding an algorithm and watching it run on a machine. Then it's too late and it all becomes work, very stressful work.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 28.
- Keywords: Programming_quotes Software_quotes Humanity_quotes Programmer_quotes Complexity_quotes Algorithm_quotes Machine_quotes Work_quotes Stress_quotes Real_quotes Scoop_quotes Element_quotes Human_quotes Turing(topic)_quotes Neuman(topic)_quotes Inventor_quotes Plenty_quotes Part_quotes Deal_quotes Enormous_quotes Spring_quotes Far_quotes Start_quotes Fun_quotes Coding_quotes Watch_quotes Run_quotes Late_quotes
Testing Large Systems
“Many programmers do an adequate job of testing the logic of a single module. But testing an entire system is another matter. Once a module is absorbed into the mass of programs, running as part of the real world, the nature of testing changes.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 57.
Scientific Method and Testing
“The scientific method is not part of their curriculum. The men and women who are called upon to test computer systems know little, if anything, about running a simple experiment.”
- Source:Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 58.
Fred_Brooks
Hardest Part of Design
“The hardest part of design is deciding what to design.”
- Source: Brooks Jr., F. P. (2010). The Design of Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 978-0-201-36298-5. Chapter 3, page 22.
- Keywords: Design_quotes Difficulty_quotes Decision_quotes Hard_quotes Part_quotes
Euclid
Point
“A point is that which has no part.”
- Source: Written by Euclid in his book entitled 'The Elements: Book 1' Definition 1. English translation in the book 'Euclid the Thirteen Books of the Elements: Vol. 1 (Books I and II)'. Translated by Thomas L Heath. Published by Cambridge University Press in 1908.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Point_quotes Part_quotes Geometry_quotes Continuous_quotes
Kurt_Gödel
Religion
“Religions are, for the most part, bad - but religion is not.”
- Source: As quoted in ‘A Logical Journey: From Gödel to Philosophy’ (1996) by Hao Wang, page 316.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Religion_quotes Bad_quotes Most_quotes Part_quotes
Pierre-Simon_Laplace
Problems of Probability
“The most important questions of life... are indeed for the most part only problems of probability. Strictly speaking it may even be said that nearly all our knowledge is problematical; and in the small number of things which we are able to know with certainty, even in the mathematical sciences themselves, the principal means for ascertaining truth — induction and analogy — are based on probabilities.”
- Source: Pierre-Simon Laplace in the essay “Philosophical Essay on Probabilities”, Introduction. Originally published in 1886 in French as “Theorie Analytique Des Probabilites”. English translation by Frederick Wilson Truscott and Frederick Lincoln Emory published in 1902 by John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY. Online at https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Philosophical_Essay_on_Probabilities/WxoPAAAAIAAJ?hl=en retrieved 2024-06-20.
- Keywords: Important_quotes Question_quotes Life_quotes Part_quotes Problem_quotes Probability_quotes Near_quotes Knowledge_quotes Problematical_quotes Small_quotes Number_quotes Thing_quotes Ability_quotes Certainty_quotes Mathematics_quotes Science_quotes Principal_quotes Mean_quotes Ascertain_quotes Truth_quotes Induction_quotes Analogy_quotes Base_quotes
Alan_Perlis
Program Parts Recurse
“Every program is a part of some other program...”
- Source: Perlis, A. J. (1982). Special Feature: Epigrams on programming. ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 17(9), 7–13. http://doi.org/10.1145/947955.1083808
- Keywords: Program_quotes Programming_quotes Part_quotes Recursion_quotes
Steven_Pinker
Neurons to Consciousness
“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
- Source: From the Q&A portion of the lecture From Neurons to Consciousness given by Steven Picker at the New College of the Humanities, 2017. Video available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrVBkxLcqrw&t=4057s (posted 20170309).
- Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes
Computational Theory of Mind
“The computational theory of mind is not the same thing as the despised ‘computer metaphor.’ As many critics have pointed out, computers are serial, doing one thing at a time; brains are parallel, doing millions of things at once. Computers are fast; brains are slow. Computer parts are reliable; brain parts are noisy. Computers have a limited number of connections; brains have trillions. Computers are assembled according to a blueprint; brains must assemble themselves.”
- Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 1 Section Reverse-Engineering the Psyche.
- Keywords: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Mind_quotes Despise_quotes Computer_quotes Metaphor_quotes Criticism_quotes Point_quotes Serial_quotes Time_quotes Brain_quotes Parallel_quotes Fast_quotes Slow_quotes Reliability_quotes Part_quotes Noise_quotes Limitation_quotes Number_quotes Connection_quotes Assembly_quotes According_quotes Blueprint_quotes Million_quotes Trillion_quotes
Outside Psychology
“Psychologists have to look outside psychology if they want to explain what the parts of the mind are for.”
- Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 1 Section Reverse-Engineering the Psyche.
- Keywords: Psychology_quotes Look_quotes Outside_quotes Explanation_quotes Part_quotes Mind_quotes
Computational Mind Probabilistic
“The computational theory thus embraces an alternative kind of computer with many elements that are active to a degree corresponding to the probability that some statement is true or false, and in which the activity levels change smoothly to register new and roughly accurate probabilities. (As we shall see, that may be the way the brain works.) The key idea is that the answer to the question 'What makes a system smart?' is not the kind of stuff it is made of or the kind of energy flowing through it, but what the parts of the machine stand for and how the patterns of changes inside it are designed to mirror truth-preserving relationships (including probabilistic and fuzzy truths).”
- Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 2 Section: The search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.
- Keywords: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Embrace_quotes Alternative_quotes Kind_quotes Computer_quotes Element_quotes Activity_quotes Degree_quotes Correspondence_quotes Probability_quotes Statement_quotes True_quotes False_quotes Level_quotes Change_quotes Smooth_quotes Register_quotes Rough_quotes Accuracy_quotes Sight_quotes Way_quotes Brain_quotes Work_quotes Key_quotes Idea_quotes Answer_quotes Question_quotes System_quotes Smart_quotes Stuff_quotes Energy_quotes Flow_quotes Part_quotes Machine_quotes Stand_quotes Pattern_quotes Inside_quotes Design_quotes Mirror_quotes Fuzzy_quotes Truth_quotes Preservation_quotes Mind_quotes
Karl_Popper
Scientific Game
“Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game.”
- Source: Popper, K. R. (2005). The Logic of Scientific Discovery | 1935 (1935/Epub). New York, NY: Routledge. Page 280.
- Keywords: Unwilling_quotes Expose_quotes Idea_quotes Hazard_quotes Refutation_quotes Falsification_quotes Part_quotes Science_quotes Game_quotes
Willard_Van_Orman_Quine
Science as a Tool
“As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries - not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.”
- Source: From A Logical Point of View (1953), p. 44.
- Keywords: Empirical_quotes Thinking_quotes Conceptual_quotes Scheme_quotes Science_quotes Tool_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Experience_quotes Light_quotes Past_quotes Physical_quotes Object_quotes Import_quotes Situation_quotes Convenience_quotes Intermediary_quotes Definition_quotes Term_quotes Irreducible_quotes Posit_quotes Compare_quotes Epistemology_quotes God_quotes Myth_quotes Part_quotes Physics_quotes Belief_quotes Error_quotes Point_quotes Degree_quotes Kind_quotes Entity_quotes Culture_quotes Superior_quotes Proof_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Device_quotes Management_quotes Structure_quotes Flux_quotes Homer(topic)_quotes Efficacious_quotes
Jef_Raskin
Worldwide Network
“In looking back at this turn-of-the-century period, the rise of a worldwide network will be seen as the most significant part of the computer revolution.”
- Source: Jef Raskin. Interview in the Technology column of the newspaper The Guardian (21 October 2004). Interviewed by Jason Walsh. Online at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/oct/21/interviews.onlinesupplement (retrieved 2018-05-29).
Bertrand_Russell
Pure Mathematics
“Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is, of which it is supposed to be true. Both these points would belong to applied mathematics. We start, in pure mathematics, from certain rules of inference, by which we can infer that if one proposition is true, then so is some other proposition. These rules of inference constitute the major part of the principles of formal logic. We then take any hypothesis that seems amusing and deduce its consequences. If our hypothesis is about anything, and not about some one or more particular things, then our deductions constitute mathematics. Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. People who have been puzzled by the beginnings of mathematics will, I hope, find comfort in this definition, and will probably agree that it is accurate.”
- Source: “Recent Work on the Principles of Mathematics”, published in 1901 within International Monthly, Vol. 4. later published as the essay “Mathematics and the Metaphysicians” within the book “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays” by Bertrand Russell published in 1917 by George Allen & Unwin, London, England.
- Keywords: Pure_quotes Mathematics_quotes Consist_quotes Entire_quotes Assertion_quotes Effect_quotes Proposal_quotes True_quotes Essential_quotes Discussion_quotes First_quotes Mention_quotes Suppose_quotes Point_quotes Belong_quotes Application_quotes Certainty_quotes Rule_quotes Inference_quotes Constitute_quotes Major_quotes Part_quotes Principle_quotes Formal_quotes Logic_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Amuse_quotes Deduction_quotes Consequence_quotes Causality_quotes Particular_quotes Definition_quotes Subject_quotes Knowledge_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Talking_quotes Speak_quotes People_quotes Puzzle_quotes Confusion_quotes Begin_quotes Comfort_quotes Accuracy_quotes
Coherence
“It is said that the mark of falsehood is failure to cohere in the body of our beliefs, and that it is the essence of a truth to form part of the completely rounded system which is The Truth.”
- Source: Bertrand Russell, (1912), In the book entitled “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell. Second edition published in 1998 (originally published in 1912) by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. Chapter 12. ISBN 978-0-19-285423-0. Online at <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5827> retrieved 2022.
Franz_Selig
Specification Feedback
“External specifications at any level describe the software product in terms of the items controlled by and available to the user. The internal design describes the software product in terms of the program structures which realize the external specifications. It has to be understood that feedback between the design of the external and internal specifications is an essential part of a realistic and effective implementation process. Furthermore, this interaction must begin at the earliest stage of establishing the objectives, and continue until completion of the product.”
- Source: F. Selig in a report entitled Software Engineering: Report of a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. Chaired by Friedrich Ludwig Bauer. Edited by P. Naur; B. Randell. Conference held 1968-10-07 through 1968-10-11 in Garmisch, Germany. OCLC: 35337842.
- Keywords: Software_Engineering_quotes Specification_quotes Design_quotes Feedback_quotes Implementation_quotes Project_quotes Goal_quotes Objectives_quotes Software_quotes Engineering_quotes Level_quotes Product_quotes Term_quotes Item_quotes Control_quotes Available_quotes Internal_quotes Realize_quotes External_quotes Understand_quotes Essential_quotes Part_quotes Realistic_quotes Effective_quotes Process_quotes Interaction_quotes Stage_quotes Establish_quotes Completion_quotes
Claude_Shannon
Turing Machine
“We may think of a Turing machine as composed of three parts — a control element, a reading and writing head and an infinite tape.”
- Source: From a book section entitled “A Universal Turing Machine with Two Internal States” by Claude Shannon, within the book “Automata Studies”, edited by C. E. Shannon and J. McCarthy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956. Pages 157-166. DOI 10.1515/9781400882618-007.
Rupert_Sheldrake
Empirical Approach
“Science needs to be liberated from these constrictive dogmas of mechanistic materialism... If we go beyond those dogmas, science gets much more interesting. All sorts of new research become possible. New questions can be asked. We can find out more about nature and more about consciousness by doing science in a new more open way. But what remains part of science so crucial to it is the empirical approach. The putting forward of hypotheses, the critical discussion, and the testing of hypotheses by experiment, the scientific method.”
- Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The video “Nature's Hidden Intelligence: Morphic Fields”. Online at https://youtu.be/qrIlWrGe4w4?t=4894. Posted 2025-01-03. Video offset 1:21:34.
- Keywords: Need_quotes Liberate_quotes Constrict_quotes Dogma_quotes Mechanistic_quotes Materialism_quotes Interesting_quotes New_quotes Research_quotes Possible_quotes Question_quotes Ask_quotes Find_quotes Nature_quotes Consciousness_quotes Do_quotes Open_quotes Way_quotes Remain_quotes Part_quotes Science_quotes Crucial_quotes Empirical_quotes Approach_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Critical_quotes Discussion_quotes Test_quotes Experiment_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Method_quotes
Herbert_Simon
Predictions and Design
“Since the consequences of design lie in the future, it would seem that forecasting is an unavoidable part of every design process. If that is true, it is cause for pessimism about design, for the record in forecasting even such 'simple' variables as population is dismal. If there is any way to design without forecasts, we should seize on it.”
- Source: Simon, H. A. (1996). The Sciences of the Artificial (Third Edition). Computers & Mathematics with Applications (3rd ed., Vol. 33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN: 9780585360102. Retrieved 2018-08-23 from https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/Simon_Herbert_A_The_Sciences_of_the_Artificial_3rd_ed.pdf. Chapter 6, page 146.
Adam_Smith
Three Great Orders
“The whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country... naturally divides itself, it has already been observed, into three parts; the rent of land, the wages of labour, and the profits of stock; and constitutes a revenue to three different orders of people; to those who live by rent, to those who live by wages, and to those who live by profit. These are the three great, original, and constituent orders of every civilised society... The interest of the first of those three great orders, it appears from what has been just now said, is strictly and inseparably connected with the general interest of the society. Whatever either promotes or obstructs the one, necessarily promotes or obstructs the other... The interest of the second order, that of those who live by wages, is as strictly connected with the interest of the society as that of the first... Employers constitute the third order, that of those who live by profit. It is the stock that is employed for the sake of profit which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every society... But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity and fall with the declension of the society. On the contrary... The interest of this third order, therefore, has not the same connection with the general interest of the society as that of the other two... The interest of the dealers... is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.”
- Source: Adam Smith (1776) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London, England: W. Strahan and T. Cadell. Book I chapter XI.
- Keywords: Whole_quotes Annual_quotes Produce_quotes Land_quotes Labor_quotes Country_quotes Natural_quotes Division_quotes Observation_quotes Part_quotes Rent_quotes Wage_quotes Labor_quotes Profit_quotes Stock_quotes Constitute_quotes Revenue_quotes Differences_quotes Order_quotes Original_quotes Civilization_quotes Society_quotes Interest_quotes Appearance_quotes Say_quotes Strict_quotes Inseperable_quotes Connection_quotes Generality_quotes Promotion_quotes Obstruction_quotes Employer_quotes Employment_quotes Motion_quotes Prosperity_quotes Fall_quotes Declension_quotes Contrary_quotes Dealer_quotes Opposite_quotes Public_quotes Market_quotes Competition_quotes Proposal_quotes Law_quotes Regulation_quotes Commerce_quotes Listening_quotes Precaution_quotes Careful_quotes Examination_quotes Scrupulous_quotes Suspicion_quotes Adoption_quotes Attention_quotes Man_quotes Deception_quotes Oppression_quotes Occasional_quotes
Invisible Hand
“By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”
- Source: Adam Smith (1776) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London, England: W. Strahan and T. Cadell. Book IV chapter II.
- Keywords: Preference_quotes Support_quotes Domestic_quotes Foreign_quotes Industry_quotes Intention_quotes Security_quotes Direction_quotes Manner_quotes Produce_quotes Value_quotes Gain_quotes Invisible_quotes Hand_quotes Promote_quotes End_quotes Part_quotes Worse_quotes Society_quotes Promotion_quotes Interest_quotes Frequent_quotes Effectiveness_quotes
Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
Systematic Soldiering
“The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant of how fast work can be done. So universal is soldiering for this purpose, or under any of the ordinary systems of compensating labor, who does not devote a considerable part of his time to studying just how slowly he can work and still convince his employer that he is going at a good pace.”
- Source: F.W. Taylor (1903) "Shop management; a paper read before the American society of mechanical engineers, " in: Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 24: 1337-1480. p. 1351.
- Keywords: Productivity_quotes Soldiering_quotes Ignorance_quotes Employment_quotes Labor_quotes Deception_quotes Worker_quotes Great_quotes Part_quotes Systematic_quotes Men_quotes Deliberate_quotes Keep_quotes Employer_quotes Fast_quotes Work_quotes Done_quotes Universal_quotes Purpose_quotes Ordinary_quotes System_quotes Compensation_quotes Devote_quotes Considerable_quotes Time_quotes Study_quotes Slow_quotes Convince_quotes Go_quotes Pace_quotes Good_quotes
Maximum Prosperity
“It would seem to be so self-evident that maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with maximum prosperity for the employee, ought to be the two leading objects of management, that even to state this fact should be unnecessary. And yet there is no question that, throughout the industrial world, a large part of the organization of employers, as well as employees, is for war rather than for peace, and that perhaps the majority on either side do not believe that it is possible so to arrange their mutual relations that their interests become identical.”
- Source: F.W. Taylor, 1911. Principles of Scientific Management. New York and London, Harper & brothers. Chapter 1.
- Keywords: Employment_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Prosperity_quotes Management_quotes Conflict_quotes War_quotes Cooperation_quotes Maximum_quotes Optimal_quotes Science_quotes Self-evident_quotes Evident_quotes Employer_quotes Couple_quotes Employee_quotes Leading_quotes Object_quotes State_quotes Fact_quotes Unnecessary_quotes Question_quotes Industrial_quotes World_quotes Part_quotes Organization_quotes Peace_quotes Majority_quotes Side_quotes Believe_quotes Possible_quotes Arrange_quotes Mutual_quotes Relation_quotes Interest_quotes Identical_quotes
Alan_Turing
Digital Computer
“A digital computer can usually be regarded as consisting of three parts: One, store. Two, executive unit. Three, control.”
- Source: From the paper entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” by Alan Turing. Published in 1936 in “Mind”, volume 49, number 236.
- Keywords: Digital_quotes Computer_quotes Regard_quotes Consist_quotes Part_quotes Store_quotes Executive_quotes Unit_quotes Control_quotes
Gerald_Weinberg
Measuring Performance
“One consequence of the size of a large project is that performance becomes more difficult to measure. Part of this difficulty stems from the scale of things, which makes it impossible for a single mind to be making the judgment of all the parts.”
- Source: Chapter 6. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.