In the 1960s one of the first computer programs designed to decipher the meaning of sentences was asked to analyze the classic of all statements about temporal movement, “Time flies like an arrow.” It came up with the following message:
- Time proceeds as an arrow does (that is, quickly or in a direction)
- One should measure the speed of flies the same way as one measures the speed of an arrow
- One should measure the speed of flies the same way as an arrow measures the speed of flies.
- Go measure the speed of flies that resemble an arrow
- Particular kind of flies, time-flies are fond of an arrow.
– excerpt from the book A Geography of Time by Robert Levine
PS: I just realized that there is a dedicated wikipedia page for the statement!