"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do"
About this Quote
Computers are obedient in the way a guillotine is obedient: flawless execution, zero conscience. Ted Nelson’s line works because it punctures the comforting myth that technology is “smart” in the human sense. The joke lands on repetition, but the twist is moral. Obedience is pitched as “good news” only if you assume the person giving orders is competent, careful, and aligned with the outcome they actually want. Nelson’s punchline exposes how rarely that’s true.
The subtext is an early, sharp warning about automation’s literalism. Computers don’t “understand” intent; they enact instructions with a kind of weaponized sincerity. That creates a specific modern dread: not that machines will rebel, but that they’ll comply. Bugs, security holes, biased models, catastrophic scaling errors - these aren’t betrayals. They’re the bill coming due for ambiguous specs, sloppy assumptions, and incentives that reward shipping over sense-making.
Context matters: Nelson is a pioneer of hypertext, a figure who spent decades arguing that the way we structure information shapes how we think and how power flows. So the quote isn’t merely programmer humor; it’s a critique of bureaucratic thinking translated into code. “Do what you tell them” is also how institutions behave when rules become the substitute for judgment.
It still reads like a diagnosis of our AI era: the danger isn’t malicious sentience, it’s high-speed literalism at scale. The line dares us to stop anthropomorphizing machines and start interrogating ourselves - our instructions, our priorities, and our refusal to own the consequences of our own commands.
The subtext is an early, sharp warning about automation’s literalism. Computers don’t “understand” intent; they enact instructions with a kind of weaponized sincerity. That creates a specific modern dread: not that machines will rebel, but that they’ll comply. Bugs, security holes, biased models, catastrophic scaling errors - these aren’t betrayals. They’re the bill coming due for ambiguous specs, sloppy assumptions, and incentives that reward shipping over sense-making.
Context matters: Nelson is a pioneer of hypertext, a figure who spent decades arguing that the way we structure information shapes how we think and how power flows. So the quote isn’t merely programmer humor; it’s a critique of bureaucratic thinking translated into code. “Do what you tell them” is also how institutions behave when rules become the substitute for judgment.
It still reads like a diagnosis of our AI era: the danger isn’t malicious sentience, it’s high-speed literalism at scale. The line dares us to stop anthropomorphizing machines and start interrogating ourselves - our instructions, our priorities, and our refusal to own the consequences of our own commands.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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