It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform.
In plain words
A computer only does what people figure out how to tell it to do.
Where these words come from
- 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 3 (1843), Note G on the Analytical Engine (the 'Lovelace objection' passage) — primary scan page fetched; earlier 'Note A' label was wrong.
- Notes on the Analytical Engine (Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 3)
- 1843
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Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.
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ArchimedesOf all lines which have the same extremities the straight line is the least.ArchimedesI have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.Thomas EdisonSpeech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible.Stephen HawkingThe cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.Carl SaganScience is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.Carl Sagan