Forbes

“WESTERN MAN IS EXTERNALIZING HIMSELF IN THE FORM OF GADGETS.”

—WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

92 | FORBES ASIA JULY 2016

“DAVE, STOP. STOP, WILL YOU? STOP, DAVE.
WILL YOU STOP, DAVE? DAVE, MY MIND IS
GOING. I CAN FEEL IT. I CAN FEEL IT.”
—HAL

SOURCES: THE SONNETS TO ORPHEUS, BY RAINER MARIA RILKE; THE TIMES BOOK OF QUOTATIONS; 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY AND

2010: ODYSSEY TWO, BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE; I, ROBOT, BY ISAAC ASIMOV; GOODREADS.COM; CONTINGENCIES OF REINFORCEMENT:

A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS, BY B.F. SKINNER; THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, BY URSULA K. LE GUIN; NAKED LUNCH, BY WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS.

On Artificial Intelligence

FINAL

THOUGHT

“Does one really

think a robot

could have written

Shakespeare? That

the creative arts

can be done by

computers? Who

the hell creates

the robots?”

—MALCOLM FORBES

THOUGHTS

“The real question is not whether machines

think, but whether men do. The mystery

which surrounds a thinking machine

already surrounds a thinking man.”

—B.F. SKINNER

“The danger from computers is not

that they will eventually get as smart

as men, but we will meanwhile agree

to meet them halfway.”
—BERNARD AVISHAI

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JOHN B. CARNETT/BONNIER CORP/GETTY IMAGES; DAN TUFFS/GETTY IMAGES; FINE ART IMAGES/HERITAGE/GETTY IMAG

ES;

MONDADORI PORTFOLIO/GETTY IMAGES; NEWSCOM; ULLSTEIN BILD/GETTY IMAGES; ROLF SCHULTEN/ULLSTEIN BILD/GETTY IMAGES

“The Zeroth

Law: A robot

may not harm

humanity or, by

inaction, allow

humanity to

come to harm.”

—ISAAC ASIMOV

“A machine

is more

blameless,

more sinless

even than

any animal.

It has no

intentions

whatsoever

but our own.”

—URSULA K. LE GUIN

“IT SEEMS PROBABLE THAT ONCE THE

MACHINE THINKING METHOD HAD

STARTED, IT WOULD NOT TAKE LONG

TO OUTSTRIP OUR FEEBLE POWERS.”

—ALAN TURING

“Every

technology,

every science

that tells us

more about

ourselves is

scary at the

time.”

—RODNEY A. BROOKS

“WHETHER WE ARE

BASED ON CARBON

OR ON SILICON MAKES

NO FUNDAMENTAL

DIFFERENCE. WE

SHOULD EACH BE

TREATED WITH

RESPECT.”

—ARTHUR C. CLARKE

“The machine threatens all achievement.”

—RAINER MARIA RILKE

“Will AI someday really think?
That’s like asking if submarines
swim. If you call it swimming,
then robots will think, yes.”
—NOAM CHOMSKY