It is not always possible to know what one has learned, or when the dawning will arrive. You will continue read more

It is not always possible to know what one has learned, or when the dawning will arrive. You will continue to shift, sift, to shake out and to double back. The synthesis that finally occurs can be in the most unexpected place and the most unexpected time. My charge ... is to be alert to the dawnings.

What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within read more

What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within the reach of our resources. Both now depend upon human decision and human will.

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to read more

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.

A satellite has no conscience.

A satellite has no conscience.

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's read more

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics. - Essays, 1625.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics. - Essays, 1625.

For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If read more

For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.

Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will read more

Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will always find that the task itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.

Bush reiterated his stand to conservatives opposing his decision on stem cell research. He said today he believes life begins read more

Bush reiterated his stand to conservatives opposing his decision on stem cell research. He said today he believes life begins at conception and ends at execution.