Marvin Minsky
understand learn
“You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way.”
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
aware mind best
“In general, we’re least aware of what our minds do best.”
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
computer violin flexible learn
“A computer is like a violin. You can imagine a novice trying first a phonograph and then a violin. The latter, he says, sounds terrible. That is the argument we have heard from our humanists and most of our computer scientists. Computer programs are good, they say, for particular purposes, but they aren’t flexible. Neither is a violin, or a typewriter, until you learn how to use it.”
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
people fiction science problem screw lives
“General fiction is pretty much about ways that people get into problems and screw their lives up. Science fiction is about everything else.”
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
computer aware people
"No computer has ever been designed that is ever aware of what it's doing; but most of the time, we aren't either."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
minsky - secret meaning connect
“The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we've connected it to all the other things we know.
That's why it's almost always wrong to seek the "real meaning" of anything. A thing with just one meaning has scarcely any meaning at all.”
- Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
artificial intelligence AI science machine men
"Artificial intelligence is the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
intelligence word people unknown process brain problem ignorance
"What is intelligence, anyway? It is only a word that people use to name those unknown processes with which our brains solve problems we call hard. But whenever you learn a skill yourself, you're less impressed or mystified when other people do the same. This is why the meaning of 'intelligence' seems so elusive: It describes not some definite thing but only the momentary horizon of our ignorance about how minds might work."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
10 years computers keep pets
"Within 10 years computers won't even keep us as pets."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
bet human brain kludge
"I bet the human brain is a kludge."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
nature mind power messy cross-connect agent evolution tricks
"The nature of mind: much of its power seems to stem from just the messy ways its agents cross-connect. ...it's only what we must expect from evolution's countless tricks."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
science learn most study least
"In science, one learns the most by studying what seems to be the least."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
children adult thought isolate educate explain dumb smart
"Our present culture may be largely shaped by this strange idea of isolating children's thought from adult thought. Perhaps the way our culture educates its children better explains why most of us come out as dumb as they do, than it explains how some of us come out as smart as they do."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
trick intelligent power diversity
"What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
logic apply real world
"Logic doesn't apply to the real world."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
quantity quality compare
"We turn to quantities when we can't compare the qualities of things."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
principal activity brain change themselves
"The principal activities of brains are making changes in themselves."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)
AI Artificial Intelligence realism McCarthy work four hundred
"I believed in realism, as summarized by John McCarthy's comment to the effect that if we worked really hard, we'd have an intelligent system in from four to four hundred years."
― Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)