The Computer That Ate My Brother is a children's novel by Dean Marney. Published in 1985, it is about a boy named Harry Smith who receives a computer on his twelfth birthday, only to find it has a mind of its own, flashing lights to get attention, switching itself on and off at will, and communicating using text (similar to the WOPR).
That was okay when Harry was thinking about dinner.It wasn't okay when he was thinking about his brother Roger,the worst possible slime ever to walk the face of the Earth. At the end, his brother returns, having been transformed by the experience of being warped to another dimension.
Famous quotes containing the words computer, ate and/or brother:
“What, then, is the basic difference between today’s computer and an intelligent being? It is that the computer can be made to see but not to perceive. What matters here is not that the computer is without consciousness but that thus far it is incapable of the spontaneous grasp of pattern—a capacity essential to perception and intelligence.”
—Rudolf Arnheim (b. 1904)
“He ate and drank the precious Words,
His Spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust.”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“What poet would not grieve to see
His brother write as well as he?
But rather than they should excel,
He’d wish his rivals all in Hell.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)