A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind. Joseph Weizenbaum
The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is responsible. Universes of virtually unlimited complexity can be created in the form of computer programs. Joseph Weizenbaum
Their rumpled clothes, their unwashed and unshaven faces, and their uncombed hair all testify that they are oblivious to their bodies and to the world in which they move. These are computer bums, compulsive programmers. Joseph Weizenbaum
The human being becomes a human, because he is understood and treated as a human by other humans. And that’s where the deepest truths come from which nourish the human being – for example trust: to trust another human. Joseph Weizenbaum
The first priority has to be, it seems to me, to lend to those to be educated a mastery of their own language so that they can express themselves clearly and with precision, in speech and in writing.That’s the very first priority. The second priority is to give students an entree to and an identity within the culture of their society, which implies a study of history, literature, and all that. And the third, very close to the second, is to prepare people for living in a society in which science is important, which means to teach them mathematics, or at least arithmetic, and the fundamental skills important to observing the world. Joseph Weizenbaum
…what primary and secondary schools teach about computers now is either wrong or can be learned by a reasonably educated person in a few weeks. Joseph Weizenbaum
…how well are the schools fulfilling the first priorities? Certainly the answer with respect to language is miserably, absolutely miserably. Joseph Weizenbaum
One of the things you would discover is that education has a very much lower priority in the United States than do a great many other things, most particularly the military. Joseph Weizenbaum
I think the computer has from the beginning been a fundamentally conservative force. It has made possible the saving of institutions pretty much as they were, which otherwise might have had to be changed. Joseph Weizenbaum