Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
Interpretation
Computers, when properly programmed, operate with complete honesty and consistency, lacking human flaws.
Isaac Asimov's quote highlights a fundamental characteristic of computers: their ability to function with pure logic and honesty once they have been programmed correctly. Unlike humans, who can be influenced by emotions and biases, computers perform tasks based solely on the instructions given to them, presenting a kind of inhumanity that is devoid of deception but can also lead to unintended consequences if not carefully managed.
In practice
In a tech conference discussing the implications of artificial intelligence.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
I believe quite simply that the small company of the future will be as much a research organization as it is a manufacturing company.
Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died.
Technological society leads to increasing numbers of people who cannot adapt to the inhuman rhythm of modern life with its emphasis on specialization. A class of people is growing up who are unexploitable because they are not worth employing even for the minimum wage. Technological progress makes whole categories of people useless without making it possible to support them with the wealth produced by the progress.
Free software is software that respects your freedom and the social solidarity of your community. So it's free as in freedom.
One of the symptoms of an absence of innovation is the fact that you lose your jobs. Everyone else catches up with you. They can do what you do better than you or cheaper than you. And in a multinational corporate-free market enterprise, it is the company's obligation to take the factory to a place where they can make it more cheaply.
A new bubble will replace the old one. A new technology will come along to fix the messes we made with the last one. In a way, that is the story of the settling of the Americas, the supposedly inexhaustible frontier to which Europeans escaped.
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