For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If read more

For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.

Before we work on artificial intelligence why don't we do something about natural stupidity?

Before we work on artificial intelligence why don't we do something about natural stupidity?

A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. He sits on a hot read more

A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. He sits on a hot stove for a minute, it's longer than any hour. That is relativity.

You have to hatch ideas -- and then hitch them.

You have to hatch ideas -- and then hitch them.

We're all living in a chemical soup.

We're all living in a chemical soup.

In view of all the deadly computer viruses that have been spreading lately, Weekend Update would like to remind you: read more

In view of all the deadly computer viruses that have been spreading lately, Weekend Update would like to remind you: when you link up to another computer, you're linking up to every computer that that computer has ever linked up to.

Putting a computer in front of a child and expecting it to teach him is like putting a book under read more

Putting a computer in front of a child and expecting it to teach him is like putting a book under his pillow, only more expensive.

Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.

Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.

I am a hard-core believer that the clean desktop is the way to go... At the same time, we told read more

I am a hard-core believer that the clean desktop is the way to go... At the same time, we told OEMs that if they were going to put a bunch of icons on the desktop, then so were we.