“I used to pass by a large computer system with the feeling that it rep...” — Ellen Ullman Quote

I used to pass by a large computer system with the feeling that it represented the summed-up knowledge of human beings. It reassured me to think of all those programs as a kind of library in which our understanding of the world was recorded in intricate and exquisite detail.

I think technical people now should learn literature, because literature teaches you a great deal about how - the depths and variety of human imagination.

UNIX always presumes you know what you're doing. You're the human being, after all, and it is a mere operating system.

I think that focusing all experiences through the lens of the Internet is an example of not being able to see history through the eyes of others, to be so enamored of one's present time that one cannot see that the world was once elsewise and was not about you.

We're social beings, and I need to know and remember where I came from.

Nature is a brilliant engineer and builder. It knows how to create seashells that are twice as strong as the most resistant ceramics human beings can manufacture, and it produces silk fibers five times stronger than steel. Nature also knows how to create multipurpose forms.

We are human beings, you need to mentally switch off now and again to refresh your body and mind. But I never just lie on the couch in my downtime, I still keep my body in good shape.

That would be such a life-changing thing, for us all to know that there are other beings out there who we could potentially communicate with, or maybe we are listening to a signal that they transmitted hundreds of millennia ago.