Picasso quotation about computers

[Garson O'Toole]

I have made some progress tracing the quotation about computers that
is attributed to Pablo Picasso:

What good are computers? They can only give you answers.

The earliest evidence I have located appeared in an interview article
published in The Paris Review 32 of Summer-Fall 1964. The article
called "Pablo Picasso: A Composite Interview" consisted of a
collection of interviews conducted by the prize-winning author William
Fifield together with his interspersed observations. Interestingly,
the word "computer" did not actually appear in the text written by
Fifield that gave rise to the modern quotation

Cite: 1964 Summer-Fall, The Paris Review 32, "Pablo Picasso: A
Composite Interview" by William Fifield, Start Page 37, Quote Page 62,
Paris Review, Inc., Flushing, New York (Verified on microfilm)

I feel I am nibbling on the edges of this world when I am capable of
getting what Picasso means when he says to me—perfectly
straight-facedly—later of the enormous new mechanical brains or
calculating machines: "But they are useless. They can only give you
answers." How easy and comforting to take these things for
jokes—boutades!

More information has been posted on the Quote Investigator blog:

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/05/computers-useless/

Garson

On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Prompted by an entertaining email from Kevin Kelly of Wired I am
> exploring a quotation about computers that is attributed to Pablo
> Picasso. Kelly located two versions of the saying in the 1982 book "In
> Search of Genius" by William Fifield. The author attributed these
> words to Picasso:
>
> [Begin excerpts]
> On page 40:
> What good are computers? They can only give you answers.
>
> On page 145:
> But they are useless. They can only give you answers.
> [End excerpts]
>

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