Marvin Minsky Quotes

Quotes about:

• Artificial intelligence is the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men.

  Marvin Minsky

  Men, Machines, Done

  "Reflections on Artificial Intelligence". Book by Blay Whitby, 1996.

  60 Copy quote

• You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way.

  Marvin Minsky

  Education, Learning, Knowledge

  "Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program". Book by Rebecca Herold, 2005.

  82 Copy quote

• If you understand something in only one way, then you don't really understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we've connected it to all other things we know. Well-connected representations let you turn ideas around in your mind, to envision things from many perspectives until you find one that works for you. And that's what we mean by thinking!

  Marvin Minsky

  Motivational, Mean, Thinking

  69 Copy quote

• No computer has ever been designed that is ever aware of what it's doing; but most of the time, we aren't either.

  Marvin Minsky

  Technology, Computer

  44 Copy quote

• Once the computers got control, we might never get it back. We would survive at their sufferance. If we're lucky, they might decide to keep us as pets.

  Marvin Minsky

  Pet, Lucky, Might

  Life Magazine, November 20, 1970.

  9 Copy quote

• One can acquire certainty only by amputating inquiry.

  Marvin Minsky

  Inquiry, Certainty, Acquire

  Marvin Minsky (1988). “Society Of Mind”, p.65, Simon and Schuster

  13 Copy quote

• Will robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be our children.

  Marvin Minsky

  Children, Robots, Earth

  "Will Robots Inherit the Earth?". Scientific American, web.media.mit.edu. October 1994.

  20 Copy quote

• But the big feature of human-level intelligence is not what it does when it is works but what it does when it's stuck.

  Marvin Minsky

  Doe, Levels, Bigs

  10 Copy quote

• What is intelligence, anyway It is only a word that people use to name those unknown processes with which our brains solve problems we call hard. But whenever you learn a skill yourself, you're less impressed or mystified when other people do the same. This is why the meaning of 'intelligence' seems so elusive: It describes not some definite thing but only the momentary horizon of our ignorance about how minds might work.

  Marvin Minsky

  Ignorance, Skills, Names

  40 Copy quote

• I bet the human brain is a kludge

  Marvin Minsky

  Humorous, Brain, Human Brain

  31 Copy quote

• Everything is similar if you're willing to look far out of focus.

  Marvin Minsky

  Focus, Looks, Willing

  9 Copy quote

• We'll show you that you can build a mind from many little parts, each mindless by itself.

  Marvin Minsky

  Mind, Littles, Mindless

  "The Society of Mind". Book by Marvin Minsky, 1986.

  34 Copy quote

• The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we've connected it to all the other things we know. That's why it's almost always wrong to seek the "real meaning" of anything. A thing with just one meaning has scarcely any meaning at all.

  Marvin Minsky

  Real, Mean, Secret

  29 Copy quote

• Within 10 years computers won't even keep us as pets.

  Marvin Minsky

  Years, Pet, Computer

  37 Copy quote

• Logic doesn't apply to the real world.

  Marvin Minsky

  Real, Knowledge, Math

  11 Copy quote

• Common sense is not a simple thing. Instead, it is an immense society of hard-earned practical ideas - of multitudes of life-learned rules and exceptions, dispositions and tendencies, balances and checks.

  Marvin Minsky

  Simple, Ideas, Common Sense

  Marvin Minsky (1988). “Society Of Mind”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

• In general, we’re least aware of what our minds do best.

  Marvin Minsky

  Mind, Rationality

  Marvin Minsky (1988). “Society Of Mind”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

  17 Copy quote

• Anyone could learn Lisp in one day, except that if they already knew Fortran, it would take three days.

  Marvin Minsky

  One Day, Three, Ifs

  35 Copy quote

• What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle.

  Marvin Minsky

  Intelligent, Perfect, Diversity

  Marvin Minsky (1988). “Society Of Mind”, p.308, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

• Minds are simply what brains do.

  Marvin Minsky

  Brain, Mind

  Marvin Minsky (1988). “Society Of Mind”, p.288, Simon and Schuster

  21 Copy quote

• You don't understand anything unless you understand there are at least 3 ways.

  Marvin Minsky

  Creativity, Innovation, Way

  20 Copy quote

• Computer languages of the future will be more concerned with goals and less with procedures specified by the programmer.

  Marvin Minsky

  Goal, Language, Computer

  Turing Award Lectures Year Awarded 1969, dl.acm.org. 2007.

  12 Copy quote

• We rarely recognize how wonderful it is that a person can traverse an entire lifetime without making a single really serious mistake — like putting a fork in one's eye or using a window instead of a door.

  Marvin Minsky

  Mistake, Eye, Doors

  Marvin Minsky (1988). “Society Of Mind”, p.308, Simon and Schuster

  29 Copy quote

• A computer is like a violin. You can imagine a novice trying first a phonograph and then a violin. The latter, he says, sounds terrible. That is the argument we have heard from our humanists and most of our computer scientists. Computer programs are good, they say, for particular purposes, but they aren’t flexible. Neither is a violin, or a typewriter, until you learn how to use it.

  Marvin Minsky

  Typewriters, Trying, Sound

  28 Copy quote

• Daniel Dennett is our best current philosopher. He is the next Bertrand Russell. Unlike traditional philosophers, Dan is a student of neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, computer science, and psychology. He's redefining and reforming the role of the philosopher.

  Marvin Minsky

  Psychology, Roles, Next

  43 Copy quote

Page 1 of 3

← Prev

1

2

3

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin