First, I identify an analogous problem in nature and borrow from it.

- Philip Emeagwali

During the week that I arrived in the United States, I saw an airport, used a telephone, used a library, talked with a scientist, and was shown a computer for the first time in my life.

- Philip Emeagwali

Because I am not formally trained in the medical sciences, I can bring in new ideas to AIDS research and the cross-fertilization of ideas from different fields could be a valuable contribution to finding the cure for AIDS.

- Philip Emeagwali

The 65,536 processors were inside the Connection Machine.

- Philip Emeagwali

I dropped out of high school four times between the ages of 12 to 17.

- Philip Emeagwali

Due to financial reasons, I dropped out of school after eight years of formal schooling.

- Philip Emeagwali

Briefly, to program it requires an absolute understanding of how all 65,536 processors are interconnected.

- Philip Emeagwali

The labs were happy that I was brave enough to attempt to program it and the $5 million computer was left entirely to my use. I was their human guinea pig.

- Philip Emeagwali

The Connection Machines owned by the United States government laboratories were made available to me because they were considered impossible to program and there was no great demand for them at that time.

- Philip Emeagwali

Our lives sometimes depend on computers performing as predicted.

- Philip Emeagwali

It is smarter to borrow from nature than to reinvent the wheels.

- Philip Emeagwali

I wanted to become a mathematician, physicist or astronomer.

- Philip Emeagwali

I preferred to study those subjects that were of interest to me.

- Philip Emeagwali

The hardships that I encountered in the past will help me succeed in the future.

- Philip Emeagwali

The Connection Machine was the most powerful supercomputer in the world. It is a complex supercomputer and it will take forever to completely describe how it works.

- Philip Emeagwali

Because I believe that humans are computers, I conjectured that computers, like people, can have left- and right-handed versions.

- Philip Emeagwali

I have expertise in five different fields which helps me to easily understand the analogy between my scientific problems and those occurring in nature.

- Philip Emeagwali

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

- Philip Emeagwali

My focus is not on solving nature's deeper mysteries. It is on using nature's deeper mysteries to solve important societal problems.

- Philip Emeagwali

One out of every 100 American men is HIV positive. The rate of infection has reached epidemic proportions in 40 developing nations.

- Philip Emeagwali