"Does not compute", and variations on it, is a phrase often spoken by computers, robots and other artificial intelligences in science fiction works of the 1960s to 1980s. The phrase indicated cognitive dissonance on the part of the device, conventionally leading to its self-destruction.
According to The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the phrase was first used as a catchphrase by the television show My Living Doll in 1964. It was then popularised in Lost in Space (1965), along with "Affirmative!", "Warning! Warning!" and "Danger, Will Robinson!"
The phrase "does not compute" and robots who self-destruct when considering emotions or paradoxes is frequently satirized in popular culture.
Read more about Does Not Compute: Use of The Phrase
Famous quotes containing the words does not:
“You know that your toddler needed love and approval but he often seemed not to care whether he got it or not and never seemed to know how to earn it. Your pre-school child is positively asking you to tell him what does and does not earn approval, so he is ready to learn any social refinement of being human which you will teach him....He knows now that he wants your love and he has learned how to ask for it.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)