# Quote — John Varley, Millennium

> Computers, contrary to what you may have been told, are not smart. They’re just fast. They can be programmed to act smart, but then it’s the programmer who’s actually smart and not the computer. If you give a computer long enough to chew on a problem it will usually solve it. And since a long time to a computer is about a millionth of a second, they give the illusion of being smart.

- Author: [John Varley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley.md)
- Book: [Millennium](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium.md)
- Page: 121
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Varley#Millennium_(1983)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium/computers-contrary-to-what

## More from this book

> By then I was sure the universe could no longer surprise me, nor interest me. I was wrong. It managed to do both in no more than ten minutes.

p. 205 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium/by-then-i-was.md)

> I hate inefficiency. You’d have to look a long long ways before you found a better example of it than the press conference.

p. 150 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium/i-hate-inefficiency.md)

> “You see…when you get right down to it, I don’t believe you have my daughter. I won’t until I see her. And having seen her, I won’t believe I could lose her again.”
>
> Sherman looked at him for a long time.
>
> “The universe is, so far as I know, Doctor Mayer, indifferent to what you believe or disbelieve.”

p. 233 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium/you-see-when-you.md)