We live in a world increasingly ruled by technology; we seem as governed by technology …
In 1981, the AI researcher and Yale University professor Drew McDermott called this practice of naming computational phenomena with words denoting human characteristics and capabilities wishful mnemonics. He suggested that technologists' use of such words reflected a deep-seated desire for the computational objects in question to magically assume the human-like qualities being described.
— Rage Inside the Machine by Robert Elliott Smith (Page 208 - 209)