Einstein never said that…

November 30, 2008 by Ben Shoemate 

Einstein quoteI was testing BlogJet today as a possible desktop blogging tool. Strangely, what caught my eye first was not the tool, but the quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, that they used in the sample post… I found it a little hard to believe that Einstein who died in 1955 would have a quote about computers…especially about computers being fast. Here is the quote:

“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.” — Albert Einstein (or was it Leo Cherne?…read on)

I decided to see if I could find out starting, as expected, with a simple Google search. When you search the web using Google for confirmation, its easy to find:

“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid” – You get 21,800 results
“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid” + Einstein – 12,100 results
“The computer is incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid.” Cherne – 509 results

We might stop there and say “21,000 web pages is enough evidence for me”, but WHEN did Einstein say it? WHERE? No one seems to know. A large number of these quotes seem respectable enough – many are on university web sites, computer science portals, and in textbooks. The quote was even used as the motto for Super-computing 2006 and used in the key note speech. It seems in fact to be everywhere except in any book, paper, speech, or a citable source by Albert Einstein. By this point I’m 99.9% sure he never said it – but lets keep looking.

Wikiquote (a wikipedia project) tries to track down the actual original source of all quotes lists the “powerful beyond imagination” quote as on of its unverified on the talk page. No verified quote mentions computers at all.

So in this case the web is no help, so let’s try books.

So I switched from Google web search to Google Book search. Book authors normally spend a little more time researching before they publish…most of the time. I was able to find the quote in over 190 books that Google has scanned. Unfortunately the full text is rarely available. Interestingly, most of the newer books – after 2004 readily attribute the quote to Einstein.

But no book actually about Einstein mentions the quote…or anything else about computers.

According to the book – “The New Quotable Einstein” by Freeman Dyson (take a look at the index), Einstein never mentioned computers at all. Why would he, he died in 1955, the best computer of the time looked like this:

300px-EniacThe ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator), began construction in 1943 and was completed 1946. It occupied about 1,800 square feet, used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, and weighed almost 50 tons. When it was turned off in 1955, (the year Einstein died) its estimated to have done more arithmetic than the entire human race had done prior to 1945. That IS a lot of math, maybe its possible Einstein said it after all, but we still need evidence.
 

1955 in Computer history did seem to be a big year:

 

1955 Steve Jobs is born February 24, 1955
1955 John McCarthy coins the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 1955 at Dartmouth University.
1955 Dartmouth Colleges John McCarthy coins the term “artificial intelligence.”
1955 Tim Bernes-Lee is born June 8, 1955.
1955 William (Bill) H. Gates is born October 28, 1955.
1955 IBM introduces the first IBM 702.
1955 Bell Labs introduces its first transistor computer. Transistors are faster, smaller and create less heat than traditional vacuum tubs, making these computers more reliable and efficient.
1955 The ENIAC is turned off for the last time. Its estimated to have done more arithmetic than the entire human race had done prior to 1945.

 

So if not Einstein, then who?

“Speaking of Science”, a book of science quotations by Jon Fripp includes the quote – but doesn’t attribute it to Einstein. The entry appears like this:

The Computer is incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Man is unbelievably slow, inaccurate and brilliant. The marriage of the two is a challenge and an opportunity beyond imagination.
– Walesh, 1989 (Summarizing the reasons for using computer modeling for hydrologic and water quality analysis.)

Walesh huh…who’s that? While this is a book of quotes… and the while the back of his book does state that “each quote is carefully referenced”, I know I have seen it earlier than 1989

Lets see if we can find any thing before 1989

Going back to Google book search I see the quote in a fiction book – Fort Momma (Page 37 by Al Gowan - Fiction - 2003) this time attributed to Leo Cherne. Cherne’s version is slightly different: 

“The computer is incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Man is unbelievably slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. The marriage of the two is a force beyond calculation.” – Leo Cherne
 
Searching for Leo Cherne finds lots of people quoting him and this time, wikipedia confirms it (but also needs a citation) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Cherne But when did Cherne say it? Where? I got a hint that Leo Cherne wrote this is 1977 from this Google search result:
 
  

Microcomputers and Children in the Primary School: Proceedings of … – Google Books Result

by Roy Garland – 1982 – Education – 225 pages
Leo Cherne (1977) wrote: The computer is incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. … Themarriage of the two is a force beyond calculation. …
books.google.com/books?isbn=090527332X…

 

 

 

Let’s just find the oldest damn reference to it!

Here it is (that I can find) – 1969. In a journal called “Advances in Instrumentation” v.24 pt.4, 1969, page 691, published by Instrument Society of America. Google book search found it on a shelf at the University of Michigan and digitized it on Nov 28, 2007. Here is a bit of context I was able to tease out of Google by searching over and over…

“The net result of the overall program was a group of well trained men that had been training in the same way and, as a result, now operate the machine more uniformly. If you get nothing else out of computer installation other than a well trained crew, it alone makes it worth the effort. Even with a computer there is no substitute for a good operator. Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. On the other hand, a well trained operator as compared with a computer is incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. We think of this feature as “intelligent override” in our control system. We feel you will always have to have this to make decisions about some phases of paper machine operation. Another fringe benefit is accurate production logs. Ours are set up on a 24-hour basis, but can be gotten on demand, to evaluate our progress on a given run. We also integrate stock, chemical, and steam consumption figures to give us a good reliable picture of grade manufacturing costs. In conclusion, we at Eastex feel that what we have done on our No. 4 Machine is merely the beginning. There is no question in our minds that in the future, DDC and the systems engineering method will become the industry standard for process design, installations and operation.”

But who is the author? – Alas, I do not know. Again, I can’t get to the article. If you have access to this book, please let me know. Something tells me there are earlier versions than this, and I doubt this is the reference that popularized it, but due to the copyright fear that grips the internet, I can not get to the top of the page…

Why does this bother me?

People use quotes as a way to strengthen their own position. If I can quote someone you respect, it adds credibility to whatever argument I’m making. Over time, the truth gets further and further away. The biggest names have always attracted people who are more than willing to put words into their mouths for their own gain – Confucious, Jesus, Aristotle, Shakespere, Einstein, and the biggest, most misquoted, of them all – God. All of them have probably been quoted more for the things they never said, than things they actually did say. I imagine this is the most disappointing part of time travel, waiting around to witness words never spoken and deeds never done.

Filed under: All Blog Posts, Imagination, Science, Thoughts
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Comments

  • KristynaKristyKrisFrank
    Much appreciated... I strongly suspected this was NOT a quote of his - as I frequently refer to his sayings. Im glad I didn't have to dig as much as you in order to prove my point to a fellow misquoter.
  • David
    The end of the following article attributes the pseudo-Einstein quote to Leo Cherne in 1968; if accurate, it may be earlier than the 1969 Advances in Instrumentation quote -- one would have to determine when the authors of the latter article wrote it.
    ( http://www.jstor.org/stable/20373101?seq=2 ):
    Computer Science: A Neglected Area in Schools of Education
    Gary D. Brooks
    The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Oct., 1971), pp. 121-122

    The citation is: Remarks by Leo Cherne at the Discover America Meeting, Brussels, June 27, 1968.

    I have not yet found further references to that meeting.
  • Thanks for the info! I think we are close enough to an answer to call
    this one for Leo Cherne - someone should add this source to wikipedia
    :)
  • DeboraBrod
    I don't think that BlogJet is the best to try webs on. I'd rather tell you to try Drupal solutions because they manage sites, either they belong to Rupert Murdoch or to anyone. And of course Einstein never said that... because he wouldn't agree with internet first of all.
  • stevestart
    I found the book. I am using it in a paper. It can be obtained from The University of Michigan. Here's how I am writing it up for a research paper - and I agree with you. Anyone who attributes the quote to Einstein is a fool...
    -------------------
    Albert Einstein is alleged by a number of websites to have said, “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.” The only problem with this attribution is that it has no foundation. There are no references to scholarly articles, books or even speeches proving that Einstein ever said it. Conversely, in the late 1960’s two engineers wrote “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. On the other hand, a well trained operator as compared with a computer is incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant.” The authors don’t speculate what happens when the two are placed together other than to note that the combination may result in “intelligent override” of the “control system.”

    References:
    1. http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29628.html
    2. Couture, H. D. and Keyes, M.A. (1969). A paper industry application of systems engineering and direct digital control. Journal of Advances in Instrumentation, V. 24, Part 4, p. 691-4.
  • itjobs1
    Thanks for sharing the information. I am very amazed at the confidence level of you guys, so i have to refer your blog to my friends because it’s really a help full blog.
    thank you
  • Hi Ben,
    How long did this investigation take? Wow!
    Great post... but you know after doing all this you might deserve taking the credit for the quote ;)
    ... I was one of those sites you left a comment at and followed the link here. Thanks for the info
  • Akilli
    Thanks for posting this. I just read this quote in an article on the Huffington Post : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-honore/in-pr... and I immediately thought that Einstein couldn't possibly have said it. The behemoths he might have been familiar with were being used to calculate missile trajectories - not even an area a pacifist like Einstein would have sullied himself. Even if the computers of his day were not the size of Walmart, his thinking, which was largely intuitive and visceral, would not have required them. None of his fundamental research was computationally dense, except in symbol manipulation.
  • Thanks! I went to the site and set them straight. Stop the lies! :)
  • srinidhi
    Nice research....who ever said it is absolutely perfect one..........

    Srinidhi

    www.lenvica.in
    www.lenvica.com
  • Thanks for sharing the information. I am very amazed at the confidence level of you guys, so i have to refer your blog to my friends because it’s really a help full blog.
    Good Day

    Cheers,
    sweethomeimprove.com
  • Thanks for doing research, and sorry for spreading the lie. I'll make a blog post about this soon.
  • majjam
    Did you try some local libraries to find out if there is a copy of Advances in Instrumentation in your area? I notice you are in Houston. The University of Houston has the issue you need. You can do searches in www.worldcat.org to find libraries who have books and articles. You can put in your zipcode and get results back for libraries closest to you.
  • Ben, I am having pretty much the same oproblem as you did, trying to cite a quote from Einstein . In the quotable einstein, i cant even find reference to it although countless times i see this quote referenced to Einstein 'Any intellegent fool can make things bigger......
    do you know if he really sid that and when???
    please help
    rhian
  • any information that you want to look about einstein is in google.try wikipedia
  • Try Google Book search...look for earliest version of that quote...someone
    must have cited the source
  • Peter - That is ironic. It seems in this case, that collective wisdom leads most people to believe what they want to believe (or perhaps what is convenient to believe). The trouble is, despite the power of the internet, there is an inherent weakness caused by the fact that we *believe* the internet is comprehensive if not always accurate. We believe that if we keep looking, that somewhere - amongst the billions of pages, the answer must be there, somewhere. The truth is, even once Google completes its mission of indexing every book, magazine, newspaper, and candy wrapper, there will *still* be missing knowledge - that which is unknown, unknowable, or known incorrectly (in order of increasing danger to society). The "nothing new under the sun" misnomer keeps most smart people searching when they should be inventing, discovering, or thinking for themselves.

    Some people need to search more, others need to search less. My rule of thumb for small stuff like this is give it 1 hour of Google searching across all their knowledge domains - if you can not find the information scent in 1 hour, hit the lab, the garage, or the workshop because what you are looking for either doesn't exist, or its sufficiently obscured that it will benefit from your unique point of view and research.
  • Thanks Ben! I was just embarking on the same avenue of research on this quote (which I didn't buy either, for the same reasons as you), but you just did the work. And in a splendid fashion!

    Ironically, the quote is incorrectly used by a conference I plan to attend subtitled "Leading Collective Wisdom". :-)
  • Thanks, please help spread the word - I think it will be a neat experiment to see how easily a worldwide misconception can be corrected. I think 2006 was the peak of people misquoting Einstein on this particular issue (or I could be wrong - its harder to prove that someone never said something than that they did). I'll revisit this in 3 months and again 1 year to see if it is possible to put the genie back in the bottle. If fewer books and websites attribute this to Einstein in 2009 then I think there may be hope for the internet yet. The goal is to shrink the number of web results found from 21,000. :)

    I read that the time it takes for ideas to spread is approaching zero - compared to the hundreds of years it used to take for new ideas to travel from places like China to Europe and beyond.
  • Hi Ben,
    How long did this investigation take? Wow!
    Great post... but you know after doing all this you might deserve taking the credit for the quote ;)
    ... I was one of those sites you left a comment at and followed the link here. Thanks for the info.

    Cheers.
  • What an irony.

    Computers, or internet as we know it, could simply process the sum of "12,100 results" and present an affirming notion that, yes it was Einstein's words, and it's a "fact". However, humans acquire the intuition, and driving motivation, in order to sense the depth of human behavior -- for instance understanding "quotes as a way to strengthen position" -- later on, to investigate the truth.

    Thanks! ;)
  • I went around the web and posted comments to about 10 blogs that had this quote including blogjet to ask them to change it. I fear the genie is out of the bottle now though. The internet allows truth to be both created and destroyed. Created in rumors and destroyed through research. The scary thing is that both fact and fiction can live together so peacefully.
  • Wow, that's the incredible fact checking! Thanks for doing research, and sorry for spreading the lie. I'll make a blog post about this soon.

    Thanks again!
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