all into one thing. But computers bring together all that, plus they bring logic into it, and philosophy, information theory, all that. So to me, anyway, the computer represents the culmination of all Western rational thought into an artifact.

"And the people working on these computers possess a passion about the discovery and creation of something. It's not even the creation—they know it's there, and it's sort of what Michelangelo expressed

when he was sculpting: he would look at a big rock and say, 'My statue is inside there and I just have to get it out.' It's a passion that I have only seen matched in people pursuing what they consider to be the truth of their existence. It's the same purity of spirit I have experienced in monks. These people feel that it is going to be the one most incredible revolution in our lifetimes. It's going to dwarf everything else. We are on the cliff."

Photograph by Dan McCoy


Previous Page Back to the previous page

Back to 1981 Articles Back to 1981 Articles