If we understand better how we got where we are today, then we know better where we are going.

"Darwin Among the Machines - The Evolution of Global Intelligence"

by George B. Dyson

"The process of technological development is like building a cathederal," said Barran. "Over the course of several hundred years: new people come along and each lays down a block on top of the old foundations, each saying, 'I built a cathederal.' Next month another block is placed atop the previous one. Then comes along an historian who asks, 'Well, who built the cathederal?' But the reality is that each contribution has to follow onto previous work. Everything is tied to everything else."

Paul Barran, interview by Judy O'Neill, 5 March 1990, OH 182, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis