Computer Scientist

🇺🇸Noam Chomsky

Philosophy

atheism

b. 1928

"...the deterioration of democracy.. the one hope we have for overcoming the crisis... informed, involved public taking control of their fate. If that doesn't happen we're doomed."

🇬🇧Alan Turing

Science

1912–1954

"In this paper I deal only with automatic machines, and will therefore often omit the prefix ɑ-."

🇭🇺John von Neumann

Science

1903–1957

"With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk."

🇺🇸Larry Wall

Technology

b. 1954

"I was about to say, 'Avoid fame like the plague,' but you know, they can cure the plague with penicillin these days."

🇺🇸Newton Lee

Literature

"“To be, or not to be” is such a mesmerizing quote because it applies to almost every decision in life. The choices we make define who we are."

🇺🇸Randy Pausch

Education

1960–2008

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."

🇺🇸Kurt Gödel

Philosophy

1906–1978

"National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir"

🇺🇸Seymour Papert

Mathematics

1928–2016

"Should the computer program the kid or should the kid program the computer?"

🇩🇰Bjarne Stroustrup

Science

b. 1950

"An organisation that treats its programmers as morons will soon have programmers that are willing and able to act like morons only."

🇺🇸Marvin Minsky

Mathematics

1927–2016

"Unless we can explain the mind in terms of things that have no thoughts or feelings of their own, we'll only have gone around in a circle."

"Browser compatibility problems are nature's way of saying "stop trying to be so fuckin' clever."

🇧🇷Steve Jobs

Business

"Nobody has tried to swallow us since I've been here. I think they are afraid how we would taste."

Bassel Khartabil

Technology

free-culture movement

1981–2015

"Aiki lab is a place for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, and of course, learning."

🇺🇸Peter Thiel

Business

b. 1967

"never takes seriously, but it always takes him literally. I think a lot of the voters who vote for Trump take Trump seriously, but not literally."

🇩🇪Joscha Bach

Philosophy

b. 1973

"Long ago, physics and other natural sciences... had become computational."

🇺🇸John D. Carmack

Technology

b. 1970

"When he was young, John Romero made a game for every letter of the alphabet. That was wise."

🇬🇧Tim Berners-Lee

Technology

b. 1955

"Now, if someone tries to monopolize the Web, for example pushes proprietary variations on network protocols, then that would make me unhappy."

🇺🇸Larry Ellison

Business

transhumanism

b. 1944

"It's Microsoft versus mankind, with Microsoft having only a slight lead"

🇺🇸Barry Boehm

Science

1935–2022

"The Code-and-Fix Model. The basic model used in the earliest days of software development contained two steps:"

🇺🇸Richard Stallman

Technology

free software movement

b. 1953

"You can use any editor you want, but remember that vi vi vi is the text editor of the beast."

🇺🇸Chelsea Manning

Military

b. 1987

"As the late Howard Zinn once said, "There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

🇺🇸George Klir

Science

1932–2016

"The first stage of the transition from the traditional view to the modem view of uncertainty began in the late 19th century, when physics became concerned with processes at the molecular level."

"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents."

🇺🇸Jef Raskin

Science

1943–2005

"An unlimited-length file name is a file. The content of a file is its own best name."

🇨🇦Kenneth E. Iverson

Science

1920–2004

"Most programming languages are decidedly inferior to mathematical notation and are little used as tools of thought in ways that would be considered significant by, say, an applied mathematician."

"The requirements of information retrieval, of finding information whose location or very existence is a priori unknown."

🇺🇸Dennis Ritchie

Science

1941–2011

"Life's a bitch and then your feet wear down."

Edsger W. Dijkstra

Science

1930–2002

"The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity, of mastering multitude and avoiding its bastard chaos as effectively as possible."

🇺🇸Vint Cerf

Technology

b. 1943

"And programming computers was so fascinating. You create your own little universe, and then it does what you tell it to do."

🇺🇸Douglas Crockford

Literature

b. 1955

"Progress comes from finding better ways to do things. Don’t be afraid of innovation. Don’t be afraid of ideas that are not your own."

"n order of magnitude quantitative change in technology can make a qualitative change in the lifestyle we enjoy."

🇨🇦Brian Kernighan

Literature

b. 1942

"Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming."

🇺🇸William Binney

Politics

b. 1943

"No online cipher is safe, simply because if they don't have the key they'll come across and get it from you. Assuming they didn't already implant it in the system"

🇺🇸Lotfi A. Zadeh

Mathematics

1921–2017

"A linguistic variable is defined as a variable whose values are sentences in a natural or artificial language."

🇮🇳Sam Pitroda

Politics

b. 1942

"“jump on an entire nation” just because some people from there came and did something."

🇬🇧Mark Shuttleworth

Business

b. 1973

"I urge telecommunications regulators to develop a commercial strategy for delivering effective access to the continent."

🇨🇦Theo de Raadt

Technology

b. 1968

"Theo de Raadt presented with the 2004 Free Software Award"

🇺🇸John McCarthy (computer scientist)

Science

1927–2011

"John McCarthy's Home Page at stanford.edu"