“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”
“…doing as we like, subject to such consequences as may follow: without impediment from our fellow-creatures, so long as what we do does not harm them, even though they should think our conduct foolish, perverse, or wrong.”
“This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.
“We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some—perhaps many—may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:
“This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.“
Jimmy Carter
President of the United States of America
Statement on the launch of NASA’s Voyager I, 1977
“Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
~Son Mi-451 in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas
“You find your own voice by reading the poetry of others” ~Billy Collins, poet, as cited by Alan Alda
Teachers should prepare the student for the student’s future, not for the teacher’s past.
~ Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)
The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
~ Richard Hamming, Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers (1962), Preface.
“A diversity of viewpoints is not ‘a nice thing to have’… it’s an imperative. How can you know you’re making the ‘right thing’ if you don’t have a counterbalance?” — David Nolen @ GOTO 2017
Idée Fixe
We can’t avoid complexity, but we can push it around.
~ Hal Fulton, The Ruby Way.
Form follows function— that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union
~Frank Lloyd Wright
True also of theory and practice in education, research, and programming.
My job is not to deliver information, but rather it is to design learning experiences.
– Frederick P. Brooks at SIGCSE 2012
We get to put a dent in the universe.
– Wilson Miner
Wilson Miner – When We Build from Build on Vimeo.
We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.
– marshall mcluhan
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
~ Isaac Asimov, column in Newsweek (21 January 1980)
NB: Asimov, despite his vision, was by his own account and that of his contemporaries a habitual and well known sexual assailant, groping and imposing himself upon others without their consent. See https://www.publicbooks.org/asimovs-empire-asimovs-wall/
I note this here, rather than removing this entry, because you’ll eventually come across Isaac Asimov, quotations from him, or tributes to him. 99% of those will knowingly or unknowingly gloss over his flaws while promoting his contributions to science, writing, and culture. I think you should know the whole story.
“At school, you’re not allowed to fail; the wrong answer is a bad thing,” Dyson says. “But all failures are valuable because they all teach you something. I have lots of them every day.”
— Sir James Dyson in The Seventh Disruption: How James Dyson reinvented the personal heater
For me, the take away messages from this speech are:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
— Steven Paul Jobs
Everything about computers today surprises me; there wasn’t a single thing that I could have predicted 30 years ago
When you give people too much information, they instantly resort to pattern recognition to structure the experience. The work of the artist is to find patterns
— Marshall McLuhan
Over a hundred years ago, the German poet Heine warned the French not to underestimate the power of ideas: philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor’s study could destroy a civilization.
— Isaiah Berlin, The Power of Ideas
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
— Colin Powell