Douglas Adams Quotes About Computers

Quotes about: Computers

• First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII — and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we've realized it's a brochure.

  Douglas Adams

  Technology, Typewriters, Discovery

• We no longer think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs. But there was a time when we hadn't worked out how many legs chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would often "crash" when we tried to use them. Before long, computers will be as trivial and plentiful as chairs and we will cease to be aware of the things. In fact I'm sure we will look back on this last decade and wonder how we could ever have mistaken what we were doing with them for "productivity"

  Douglas Adams

  Technology, Thinking, Should Have

• The difference between us and a computer is that, the computer is blindingly stupid, but it is capable of being stupid many, many million times a second.

  Douglas Adams

  Stupid, Differences, Computer

• I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: "Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end".

  Douglas Adams

  Apples, Might, Computer

• 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

  Moving, Technology, Typewriters

  Douglas Adams (2009). “Mostly Harmless”, p.57, Pan Macmillan

• For seven and a half million years, Deep Thought computed and calculated, and in the end announced that the answer was in fact Forty-two - and so another, even bigger, computer had to be built to find out what the actual question was.

  Douglas Adams

  Years, Two, Deep Thought

  Douglas Adams (2009). “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, p.8, Pan Macmillan

• We notice things that don't work. We don't notice things that do. We notice computers, we don't notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we don't notice books.

  Douglas Adams

  Book, Pennies, Computer

  Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry (2012). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.94, Pan Macmillan

• Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it," said Marvin. "And what happened?" pressed Ford. "It committed suicide," said Marvin and stalked off back to the Heart of Gold.

  Douglas Adams

  Suicide, Heart, Simple

  Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.138, Pan Macmillan

• Ford carried on counting quietly. This is about the most aggressive thing you can do to a computer, the equivalent of going up to a human being and saying "Blood...blood...blood...blood...

  Douglas Adams

  Blood, Computer, Counting

  Douglas Adams (2009). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.91, Pan Macmillan

• The available worlds looked pretty grim. They had little to offer him because he had little to offer them. He had been extremely chastened to realize that although he originally came from a world which had cars and computers and ballet and Armagnac, he didn't, by himself, know how any of it worked. He couldn't do it. Left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it.

  Douglas Adams

  Car, Ballet, Toasters

  Douglas Adams (2009). “Mostly Harmless”, p.74, Pan Macmillan

• I really didn't foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much of course--the computer industry didn't even foresee that the century was going to end.

  Douglas Adams

  Computer, Internet, Century

• A computer chatted to itself in alarm as it noticed an airlock open and close itself for no apparent reason. This was because Reason was in fact out to lunch.

  Douglas Adams

  Lunch, Alarms, Facts

• Only by counting could humans demonstrate their independence of computers.

  Douglas Adams

  Independence, Computer, Counting

  Douglas Adams (2009). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.91, Pan Macmillan

• I think a nerd is a person who uses the telephone to talk to other people about telephones. And a computer nerd therefore is somebody who uses a computer in order to use a computer.

  Douglas Adams

  Thinking, Order, People

  "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires" with Robert X. Cringely, www.pbs.org. 1996.

• There are two things in particular that it [the computer industry] failed to foresee: one was the coming of the Internet(...); the other was the fact that the century would end.

  Douglas Adams

  Two, Facts, Computer

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

• The future of computer power is pure simplicity.

  Douglas Adams

  Simplicity, Computer, Pure

  Douglas Adams (2005). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.84, Del Rey

• The big corporations are suddenly taking notice of the web, and their reactions have been slow. Even the computer industry failed to see the importance of the Internet, but that's not saying much. Let's face it, the computer industry failed to see that the century would end.

  Douglas Adams

  Corporations, Faces, Computer

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

• I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.

  Douglas Adams

  Hands, Tasks, Computer

  Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine (2011). “Last Chance to See”, p.49, Ballantine Books

• I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer.

  Douglas Adams

  Computer, Programming, Spending

  Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine (2011). “Last Chance to See”, p.49, Ballantine Books

• You turn the computer into the storyteller and the player into the audience, like in the old days when the storyteller would actually respond to the audience, rather than just having the audience respond to the storyteller. I had an enormous amount of fun, actually, working on that.

  Douglas Adams

  Fun, Player, Computer

  Source: www.avclub.com

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