Clifford Stoll Quotations

The Internet has no such organization - files are made available at random locations. To search through this chaos, we need smart tools, programs that find resources for us.

It's a great medium for trivia and hobbies, but not the place for reasoned, reflective judgment. Suprisingly often, discussions degenerate into acrimony, insults and flames.

No computer network with pretty graphics can ever replace the salespeople that make our society work.

Here are my strong reservations about the wave of computer networks. They isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience. They work against literacy and creativity. They undercut our schools and libraries.

While I admire the insights of many of the people in the world of computing, I get this cold feeling that I speak a different language.

The Internet is a perfect diversion from learning... it opens many doors that lead to empty rooms.

I sense an insatiable demand for connectivity. Maybe all these people have discovered important uses for the Internet. Perhaps some of them feel hungry for a community that our real neighborhoods don't deliver. At least a few must wonder what the big deal is.

Merely that I have a World Wide Web page does not give me any power, any abilities, nor any status in the real world.

For years, we've been bludgeoned with the cliche "information is power." But information isn't power. After all, who's got the most information in your neighborhood? Librarians. And they're famous for having no power at all. And who has the most power in your community? Politicians. And they're notorious for being ill-informed.

If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.