Codes are a puzzle. A game, just like any other game.

I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past. In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, 'And the sun stood still... and hasted not to go down about a whole day' (Joshua x. 13) and 'He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not move at any time' (Psalm cv. 5) were an adequate refutation of the Copernican theory.

We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields. But which are the best ones to start with? Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English.

Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.

Unless in communicating with it one says exactly what one means, trouble is bound to result.

Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.

A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.