Science Quote by Jean Rostand

The joke lands because it’s only half a joke. Rostand, a biologist who watched the 20th century turn calculation into an industry, frames abdication as convenience: why bother with the messy, slow business of thinking when a machine can deliver an answer on demand? The exclamation points do the real work. They imitate the bright, slightly manic cheer of a culture that treats efficiency as a moral virtue, turning intellectual laziness into a kind of progress narrative.

Rostand’s specific intent is a warning shot at technological complacency, not a Luddite sneer at machines. Computers can “do” certain kinds of thinking - computation, optimization, pattern matching - but the line’s sting is that we’re tempted to outsource more than arithmetic. Hand decision-making to a tool, then quietly hand it judgment, responsibility, even curiosity. The subtext is ethical: if a computer “thinks,” who is accountable when its output reshapes policy, science, or a life? The quip anticipates a familiar dodge in modern bureaucracy: don’t argue with me, argue with the system.

Context matters: Rostand lived through eras when science delivered genuine miracles and genuine horrors. That double vision fuels the cynicism. He’s puncturing a techno-utopian faith that mistakes instrument for intellect. The line still hits because it nails a contemporary pose: we praise “data-driven” decisions while shrinking the human parts of thought - doubt, interpretation, values - into afterthoughts. The real target isn’t the computer. It’s our eagerness to be relieved of the burden of being minds.