Friday, September 5, 2014

Information Processing

Neologism:  "The key phrase, 'information processing,' was coined by Marshall McLuhan, who was asked by IBM to explain to them, in succinct language, what computers are all about,"  according to Peter Bishop in Fifth Generation Computers (1986).

"The microchip will take its rightful place among history's four greatest inventions--the others being fire, the wheel, and hotel room service." ~ Peter C. Newman, Canadian Journalist, "The Dawn of a New Millennium." Maclean's, 30 Dec. 1996.




"In terms of, say, a computer technology we are headed for cottage economics, where the most important industrial activities can be carried on in any individual little shack anywhere on the globe."  Marshall McLuhan, communications pioneer, observation made in 1970. The Essential McLuhan (1995) edited by E. McLuhan & F. Zingrone.


"Thought:  one day the word 'gigabits' is going to seem as small as the word 'dozen.' ~ Observation of the narrator of Douglas Coupland's novel Microserfs (1995)."

[Source:  John Robert Colombo's FAMOUS LASTING WORDS/ Great Canadian Quotations, Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2000.