Science & Tech Quote by John F. Kennedy

Calling a human being a "computer" sounds quaint now, but in Kennedy's era it was a provocation with real stakes. Early computing was hulking, room-sized hardware tied to defense labs and Cold War anxieties. To place "man" above that machinery is not a tech-bro compliment; it's a political argument about agency at a moment when the state was rapidly delegating judgment to systems, procedures, and experts.

The line works because it borrows the prestige of the new without surrendering to it. "Extraordinary" flatters the listener and re-centers human discretion as the decisive instrument. Kennedy is selling a vision of modernity that doesn't feel dehumanizing: yes, we will use rockets and mainframes and data, but the final moral and strategic calculus still belongs to people. It's a quiet rebuttal to the creeping faith that automation equals objectivity, that a machine's output can absolve leaders of responsibility.

There's also a Cold War subtext of national confidence. If the contest with the Soviet Union is partly a contest of scientific capability, Kennedy insists the ultimate advantage isn't merely hardware; it's the human capacity to adapt, imagine, and choose under pressure. The phrase "still" is doing the heavy lifting: even as technology accelerates, don't mistake speed for wisdom.

In a presidency defined by the space race and nuclear brinkmanship, the sentence is both reassurance and warning. Tools are getting smarter. Leaders cannot afford to get dumber by outsourcing their conscience.