#machines

As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide. For want of anything better to do, we became fans of collisions. Sometimes I wrote well about collisions, which meant I was a writing machine in good repair. Sometimes I wrote badly, which meant I was a writing machine in bad repair. I no more harbored sacredness than did a Pontiac, a mousetrap, or a South Bend Lathe. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#human #life #machines #relationships #death

Molecular machines display a key signature or hallmark of design, namely, irreducible complexity. In all irreducibly complex systems in which the cause of the system is known by experience or observation, intelligent design or engineering played a role in the origin of the system... We find such systems within living organisms. ↗

— Scott A. Minnich

#biology #id #intelligent-design #molecular-machines #science

I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too. ↗

— Hugo Cabret

#machinery #machines #man #reasons #imagination

Molecular biology has shown that even the simplest of all living systems on the earth today, bacterial cells, are exceedingly complex objects. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 gms, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the nonliving world. ↗

— Michael Denton

#biology #factory #id #intelligent-design #irreducible-complexity

But neither money nor machines can create. They shuttle tokens of energy, but they do not transform. A civilization based on them puts people out of touch with their creative powers. ↗

— Lewis Hyde

#culture #machines #money #poetry #money

When you're dealing with machines or anything that you build, it either works or it doesn't, no matter how good of a salesman you are. ↗

— Marc Andreessen

#build #dealing #either #good #how

If the Net becomes the center of the universe, which is what seems to be happening, then the dizzying array of machines that will be plugged into it will virtually guarantee that the specifics of which chip and which operating system you've got will be irrelevant. ↗

— Marc Andreessen

#becomes #center #chip #dizzying #got

In turning from the smaller instruments in frequent use to the larger and more important machines, the economy arising from the increase of velocity becomes more striking. ↗

— Charles Babbage

#becomes #economy #frequent #important #increase

I love the idea of anthropomorphizing machines. I love the idea of taking technology and giving it a personality. ↗

— J. J. Abrams

#i #idea #love #machines #personality

It was one of those great miracles of history that they managed to smuggle an Enigma machines out to Britain just before they were invaded by the Nazis. ↗

— Michael Apted

#britain #enigma #great #history #invaded