To me, it looks more or less like the hardware designers have run out of ideas and that they're trying to pass the blame for the future demise of Moore's Law to the software writers by giving us machines that work faster only on a few key benchmarks!
Interpretation
This quote critiques the stagnation in hardware design and the shifting responsibility for performance improvement onto software developers.
Donald Knuth's quote reflects his concern that hardware designers have become uninspired in their innovations, leading to a reliance on software optimization to achieve performance gains. He suggests that rather than blaming software for limitations, the industry should focus on genuine advancements in hardware design to uphold Moore's Law, which posits that the number of transistors on a chip doubles approximately every two years, driving exponential growth in computing power.
In practice
In a tech conference while discussing the future of computing.
Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better.
The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists between what we know is possible with today's machines and what we have so far been able to finish.
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.
People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.
Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.
Only by developing a deeper understanding of AI systems as they act in the world can we ensure that this new infrastructure never turns toxic.
Why commit technological suicide by restricting the flow of talent into the United States?
Timeβ has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village... a simultaneous happening
I think it's brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.
Technology to wipe out truth is now available. Not everybody can afford it but it's available. When the cost comes down, look out!
There's no other company that could make a MacBook Air and the reason is that not only do we control the hardware, but we control the operating system. And it is the intimate interaction between the operating system and the hardware that allows us to do that. There is no intimate interaction between Windows and a Dell notebook.
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