"“Machines!” the Clerk said scornfully. “We have many of them, some exquisitely complex. But event the best of them are much like idiot savants. They do adequately on tedious straightforward tasks like building stars or destroying planets. But give them something tough, like solacing a widow, and they simply go to pieces. Would you believe it, the largest computer in our section can landscape an entire planet; but it cannot fry an egg or carry a tune, and it knows less about ethics than a newborn wolf cub. Would you want something like that to run your life?” “Of course not,” Carmody said. “But couldn’t someone build a machine with creativity and judgment?” “Someone has,” the Clerk said. “It has been designed to learn from experience, which means that it must make errors in order to arrive at truths. It comes in many shapes and sizes, most of them quite portable. Its flaws are readily apparent, but seem to exist as necessary counterweights to it virtues. No one has yet improved on the basic design, though many have tried. This ingenious device is called ‘intelligent life.’”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Fantasy authorsScience fiction authors from the United StatesNovelists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesJews from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chapter 3 (pp. 25-26)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Sheckley
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley (July 16, 1928 – December 9, 2005) was a Hugo- and Nebula-nominated American science fiction author.
181 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Sheckley →
Related Quotes
"The scientist, who examines everything, should look at himself. Tentatively I would define him as a discovery-produci…"
"“What kind of intelligent beings would evolve on a planet that is all mountains?” “Stupid ones!” Casker said."
"“Now look,” Janice said. “If the king is so rich, why can’t he pay?” “The king never pays for anything he can get fre…"
"All very unreasonable, but Arthur Gammet was beginning to suspect that most wizards were unreasonable people."
"Ifs and buts could erode the soundest of principles."
"Few individuals of any race murder for pleasure. There are perfectly adequate reasons to kill, though, reasons which …"
"I believe that many people read science fiction for a sense of participation in the wonders to come. The quest for no…"
"Although the mystics have left us many ways and means for achieving this enlightened state of mind, few of us ever re…"
"Esotericism, which is legal, but not too much fun, prescribes to our condition. But when one tries to follow a spirit…"
"When the first man sets foot on the surface of Mars, we will participate only to the extent of watching a shadowy rep…"