Listen, three eyes," he said, "don't you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the transformative power of computers as more than just a simple tool; they are a medium for interaction with the universe.
Douglas Adams highlights the significance of computer terminals, portraying them not merely as outdated machines but as vital interfaces that enable a profound connection between human thoughts and the broader universe. This perspective encourages us to recognize technology's role in facilitating creativity, exploration, and interaction with the vast amount of information and possibilities available in the digital realm.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about digital innovation, you could use this quote to illustrate the importance of technology in modern creativity.
More from Douglas Adams
All quotes →"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water."
Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. [...] Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.
Computers are still technology because we are still wrestling with it: it's still being invented; we're still trying to work out how it works. There's a world of game interaction to come that you or I wouldn't recognise. It's time for the machines to disappear. The computer's got to disappear into all of the things we use.
What the computer in virtual reality enables us to do is to recalibrate ourselves so that we can start seeing those pieces of information that are invisible to us but have become important for us to understand.
We are stuck with technology when all we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognize something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual.
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With the arrival of electric technology, man extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate and suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism.