Future quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 General_Aphorisms
- 2 Marcus_Aurelius
- 3 Reinout_Willem_van_Bemmelen
- 4 Niels_Bohr
- 5 Robert_Boyle
- 6 Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
- 7 Paul_Dirac
- 8 Peter_Drucker
- 9 Freeman_Dyson
- 10 Max_Ehrmann
- 11 Dwight_D_Eisenhower
- 12 Samuel_C_Florman
- 13 Henry_Ford
- 14 Thomas_Gold
- 15 John_Gribbin
- 16 Stephen_Hawking
- 17 Robert_Heinlein
- 18 Donald_Hoffman
- 19 Grace_Hopper
- 20 Byron_K_Jennings
- 21 Carl_Jung
- 22 Daniel_Kahneman
- 23 Immanuel_Kant
- 24 Alan_Kay
- 25 John_F_Kennedy
- 26 Pierre-Simon_Laplace
- 27 Alan_Perlis
- 28 Willard_Van_Orman_Quine
- 29 Hans_Reichenbach
- 30 Nicholas_Rescher
- 31 Carl_Sagan
- 32 Herbert_Simon
- 33 Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
- 34 Edward_Teller
- 35 Alan_Turing
- 36 Shannon_Vallor
- 37 Stephen_Wolfram
General_Aphorisms
Past History
"The Past Is History. The Future Is a Mystery. Today Is a Gift. That’s Why It’s Called the Present."
- Source: Traditional. Not clearly identified. Sometimes attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara De Angelis, Joan Rivers, Bill Keane, Emily Dickinson, Liz Curtis Higgs, Babatunde Olatunji, Susan Barkdoll, Nicholas L. Santowassa, Abigail Van Buren, or Alice Morse Earle.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Past_quotes History_quotes Future_quotes Mystery_quotes Call_quotes Present_quotes Today_quotes Gift_quotes
Marcus_Aurelius
Present Time
“Every man's life lies all within the present, which is but a point of time; for the past is spent, and the future is uncertain.”
- Source: From the book “Meditations” written by Marcus Aurelius, translated by Jeremy Collier, published by Walter Scott, London, England, in 1887. Found in book III paragraph 10. Originally written circa 170 CE. Retrieved from https://ia804703.us.archive.org/26/items/meditationsofmar00marc/meditationsofmar00marc_bw.pdf 2024-03-02.
- Keywords: Man_quotes Life_quotes Present_quotes Point_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Spent_quotes Future_quotes Uncertain_quotes
Reinout_Willem_van_Bemmelen
Validity of Hypothesis
“The functional validity of a working hypothesis is not a priori certain, because often it is initially based on intuition. However, logical deductions from such a hypothesis provide expectations (so-called prognoses) as to the circumstances under which certain phenomena will appear in nature. Such a postulate or working hypothesis can then be substantiated by additional observations ... The author calls such expectations and additional observations the prognosis-diagnosis method of research. Prognosis in science may be termed the prediction of the future finding of corroborative evidence of certain features or phenomena (diagnostic facts). This method of scientific research builds up and extends the relations between the subject and the object by means of a circuit of inductions and deductions.”
- Source: Reinout Willem van Bemmelen. In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 454-5.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Certainty_quotes Validity_quotes Intuition_quotes Logic_quotes Deduction_quotes Expectation_quotes Nature_quotes Observation_quotes Confirmation_quotes Prognosis_quotes Diagnosis_quotes Induction_quotes Science_quotes Research_quotes Subject_quotes Object_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Functional_quotes Work_quotes Provide_quotes Circumstance_quotes Method_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Corroborate_quotes Evidence_quotes Feature_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Build_quotes Extend_quotes Relation_quotes Circuit_quotes
Niels_Bohr
Predictions about the Future
“Predictions can be very difficult — especially about the future.”
- Source: Words spoken by Niels Bohr. Quoted in the book "The University: An Owners Manual" written by H. Rosovsky and published in 1991 by W. W. Norton & Company. See page 147. ISBN: 978-0393307832. It is said that Bohr used to quote this saying to illustrate the differences between Danish and Swedish humour. Bohr always attributed the saying to Robert Storm Petersen (1882-1949), a well-known Danish artist and writer. However, the saying did NOT originate from Petersen. It may have been said in the Danish Parliament between 1935 and 1939 [Information supplied courtesy of Professor Erik Rüdinger, Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen].
- Keywords: Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Difficult_quotes Especial_quotes
Robert_Boyle
Good Hypothesis
“The Requisites of a good Hypothesis are: : That It be Intelligible. : That It neither Assume nor Suppose anything Impossible, unintelligible, or demonstrably False. : That It be consistent with Itself. : That It be lit and sufficient to Explicate the Phaenomena, especially the chief. : That It be, at least, consistent, with the rest of the Phaenomena It particularly relates to, and do not contradict any other known Phaenomena of nature, or manifest Physical Truth. The Qualities and Conditions of an Excellent Hypothesis are: : That It be not Precarious, but have sufficient Grounds In the nature of the Thing Itself or at least be well recommended by some Auxiliary Proofs. : That It be the Simplest of all the good ones we are able to frame, at least containing nothing that is superfluous or Impertinent. : That It be the only Hypothesis that can Explicate the Phaenomena; or at least, that do's Explicate them so well. : That it enable a skillful naturalist to foretell future Phaenomena by the Congruity or Incongruity to it; and especially the event of such experiments as are aptly devised to examine It, as Things that ought, or ought not, to be consequent to It.”
- Source: Robert Boyle, Boyle Papers, 37. Quoted In Barbara Kaplan (ed.), Divulging of Useful Truths in Physick: The Medical Agenda of Robert Boyle (1993), 50.
- Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Communication_quotes Obfuscation_quotes Impossibility_quotes Falsification_quotes Consistency_quotes Explanation_quotes Nature_quotes Truth_quotes Contradiction_quotes Proof_quotes Simplicity_quotes Alternative_quotes Congruity_quotes Incongruity_quotes Experiment_quotes Prediction_quotes Induction_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Good_quotes Requisite_quotes Intelligent_quotes Assumption_quotes Suppose_quotes Unintelligent_quotes Demonstrate_quotes False_quotes Self_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Chief_quotes Physical_quotes Quality_quotes Condition_quotes Excellent_quotes Precarious_quotes Sufficient_quotes Ground_quotes Auxiliary_quotes Frame_quotes Superfluous_quotes Impertinent_quotes Enable_quotes Skill_quotes Foretell_quotes Future_quotes Event_quotes Devise_quotes Examine_quotes Consequence_quotes
Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
Writing
“It is never a waste to write for intrinsic reasons. First of all, writing gives the mind a disciplined means of expression. It allows one to record events and experiences so that they can be easily recalled, and relived in the future. It is a way to analyze and understand experiences, a self-communication that brings order to them.”
- Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “The Play of Words”, page 131. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
- Keywords: Waste_quotes Writng_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Reason_quotes Mind_quotes Discipline_quotes Expression_quotes Allow_quotes Record_quotes Event_quotes Experience_quotes Recall_quotes Relive_quotes Future_quotes Analyze_quotes Understand_quotes Self_quotes Communication_quotes Bring_quotes Order_quotes
Paul_Dirac
Mathematics Will Lead
“If you are receptive and humble mathematics will lead you by the hand. Again and again, when I have been at a loss how to proceed, I have just had to wait until I have felt the mathematics led me by the hand. It has led me along an unexpected path, a path where new vistas open up, a path leading to new territory, where one can set up a base of operations, from which one can survey the surroundings and plan future progress.”
- Source: Paul Dirac As quoted in “The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom” (2009) by Graham Farmelo, p. 435.
- Keywords: Receptivity_quotes Humility_quotes Mathematics_quotes Guidance_quotes Leadership_quotes Hand_quotes Loss_quotes Proceed_quotes Wait_quotes Lead_quotes Unexpected_quotes Path_quotes Vista_quotes New_quotes Territory_quotes Base_quotes Operation_quotes Survey_quotes Plan_quotes Future_quotes Progress_quotes
Peter_Drucker
Future Different
“The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different.”
- Source: Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, New York: Harper & Row, 1973. p. 44.
- Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Future_quotes Go_quotes Differences_quotes Change_quotes Prediction_quotes
Big University Relics
“Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book. Do you realize that the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of health care? And for the middle-class family, college education for their children is as much of a necessity as is medical care — without it the kids have no future. Such totally uncontrollable expenditures, without any visible improvement in either the content or the quality of education, means that the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis.”
- Source: Peter Drucker, “Seeing Things as They Really Are”, Forbes (March 10, 1997)
- Keywords:Year_quotes Big_quotes University_quotes Education_quotes Relic_quotes Survival_quotes Large_quotes Change_quotes First_quotes Printing_quotes Book_quotes Cost_quotes High_quotes Rise_quotes Fast_quotes Health_quotes Care_quotes Middle_quotes Class_quotes Family_quotes College_quotes Children_quotes Necessary_quotes Medicine_quotes Future_quotes Total_quotes Control_quotes Expense_quotes Visibility_quotes Improve_quotes Content_quotes Quality_quotes System_quotes Rapid_quotes Become_quotes Untenable_quotes Uncontrollable_quotes Deep_quotes Crisis_quotes Campus_quotes
Distance Learning
“Universities won't survive. The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast.”
- Source: Peter Drucker, “I Got My Degree Through E-mail”, Forbes, 1997-06-16. Retrieved 2022 from https://www.forbes.com
/forbes /1997/0616 /5912084a.html.
Freeman_Dyson
Science and Society
“In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide answers. The public does not have much use for a scientist who says, 'Sorry, but we don’t know.' The public prefers to listen to scientists who give confident answers to questions and make confident predictions of what will happen as a result of human activities. So it happens that the experts who talk publicly about politically contentious questions tend to speak more clearly than they think. They make confident predictions about the future, and end up believing their own predictions. Their predictions become dogmas which they do not question. The public is led to believe that the fashionable scientific dogmas are true, and it may sometimes happen that they are wrong. That is why heretics who question the dogmas are needed.”
- Source: Freeman Dyson, Frederick S. Pardee Distinguished Lecture (Oct 2005), Boston University. Collected in 'Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society', A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (2007), 43-44.
- Keywords: World_quotes Modern_quotes Science_quotes Society_quotes Interaction_quotes Perversity_quotes Technology_quotes Political_quotes Problem_quotes Politician_quotes People_quotes Answer_quotes Expert_quotes Knowledge_quotes Confidence_quotes Prediction_quotes Humanity_quotes Activity_quotes Talking_quotes Contention_quotes Thinking_quotes Future_quotes Belief_quotes Dogma_quotes Bias_quotes Heretical_quotes
Max_Ehrmann
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
- Source: Max Ehrmann [Poem/Author]; 2022/1948/1933/1927 [Dates];
- 2022 [Book/Version/Date]; “Desiderata” [Title]; Samantha Seebeck [Editor]; Independent [Publisher]; 979-8420409275 [ISBN];
- 1948 [Book/Version/Date]; Bertha K. Ehrmann [Editor]; Bruce Humphries, Inc. [Publisher/Name]; Boston, MA [Publisher/Location]; First [Edition]; “Desiderata” [Book/Section/Title];
- 1933-04-05 [Magazine/Version/Date]; “Desiderata” [Title]; Michigan Tradesman [Magazine/Name]; Cover [Magazine/Placement];
- 1927 [Copyright/Date];
- 1927/2023 [URL/Version]; WikiSource Desiderate 1927 Version at https://en.wikisource.org
/wiki /Desiderata [URL/Link]; 2023 [URL/Retrieved/Date]
- See Also:
- See Also:
- Keywords: Composure_quotes Noise_quotes Peace_quotes Silence_quotes Friendliness_quotes Truth_quotes Honesty_quotes Communication_quotes Listening_quotes Ignorance_quotes Story_quotes Aggression_quotes Avoidance_quotes Spirituality_quotes Competition_quotes Vanity_quotes Bitterness_quotes Achievement_quotes Pleasure_quotes Plan_quotes Career_quotes Humility_quotes Time_quotes Business_quotes Deception_quotes Virtue_quotes Heroism_quotes Affection_quotes Cynacism_quotes Love_quotes Disenchantment_quotes Advice_quotes Age_quotes Youth_quotes Maturity_quotes Surrender_quotes Strength_quotes Shield_quotes Misfortune_quotes Imagination_quotes Fear_quotes Fatigue_quotes Loneliness_quotes Discipline_quotes Gentleness_quotes Self_Care_quotes Universe_quotes Children_quotes Tree_quotes Star_quotes Validation_quotes Rights_quotes Destiny_quotes Future_quotes Deity_quotes Labor_quotes Desire_quotes Sham_quotes Drudgery_quotes Dreaming_quotes World_quotes Appreciation_quotes Happiness_quotes Optimism_quotes Cheerfulness_quotes Wisdom_quotes
Dwight_D_Eisenhower
Crises and Balance
“Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defenses; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel. But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs, balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped for advantages, balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable, balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual, balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress. Lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.”
- Source: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell address (17 January 1961).
- Keywords: Crisis_quotes Balance_quotes Action_quotes Miracle_quotes Solution_quotes Difficulty_quotes Defense_quotes Cure_quotes Program_quotes Research_quotes Possibility_quotes Consider_quotes Weighing_quotes Private_quotes Public_quotes Economy_quotes Cost_quotes Advantage_quotes Nation_quotes Necessary_quotes Comfort_quotes Desire_quotes Requirements_quotes Duty_quotes Individual_quotes Future_quotes Judgment_quotes Welfare_quotes Progress_quotes Frustration_quotesContinue_quotes Foreign_quotes Domestic_quotes Great_quotes Small_quotes Recurring_quotes Temptation_quotes Feel_quotes Spectacular_quotes Element_quotes Development_quotes Unrealistic_quotes Ill_quotes Agriculture_quotes Dramatic_quotes Expansion_quotes Basic_quotes Applied_quotes Promise_quotes Road_quotes Travel_quotes Proposal_quotes Need_quotes Essential_quotes Imbalance_quotes
Future of Society
“As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
- Source: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell address (17 January 1961).
- Keywords: Society_quotes Future_quotes Government_quotes Impulse_quotes Today_quotes Plunder_quotes Convenience_quotes Resource_quotes Tomorrow_quotes Mortgage_quotes Material_quotes Asset_quotes Family_quotes Risk_quotes Loss_quotes Spirituality_quotes Political_quotes Heritage_quotes Democracy_quotes Survival_quotes Generation_quotes Insolvent_quotes Phantom_quotes
Samuel_C_Florman
Irrationality
“So for the foreseeable future man’s irrationality — which engineering philosophers have seen fit to ignore — will have to be taken very seriously into account. In retrospect, the ideals and dreams of engineering’s Golden Age seem foolish and immature.”
- Source: From the book “The Existential Pleasures of Engineering” by {Samuel C. Florman}. Second edition published in 1994 by {St. Martin's Press}, New York, NY. First edition published in 1976. Kindle edition published in 2023. E-book ISBN 978-1466842366. Chapter 2, page 16.
Henry_Ford
Failure
“An absence of fear of the future and of veneration for the past. One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress.”
- Source: Henry Ford. A book. Entitled My Life and Work. Written by Henry Ford in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Published 1922, Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Introduction.
- Also quoted in Samuel Crowther, "Henry Ford's Problem," The Magazine of Business, vol. 52 (1927), p. 182.
- See Also:
Thomas_Gold
Knowledge Rules
“In no subject is there a rule, compliance with which will lead to new knowledge or better understanding. Skilful observations, ingenious ideas, cunning tricks, daring suggestions, laborious calculations, all these may be required to advance a subject. Occasionally the conventional approach in a subject has to be studiously followed; on other occasions it has to be ruthlessly disregarded. Which of these methods, or in what order they should be employed is generally unpredictable. Analogies drawn from the history of science are frequently claimed to be a guide; but, as with forecasting the next game of roulette, the existence of the best analogy to the present is no guide whatever to the future. The most valuable lesson to be learnt from the history of scientific progress is how misleading and strangling such analogies have been, and how success has come to those who ignored them.”
- Source: Thomas Gold, 'Cosmology', in Arthur Beer (ed.), Vistas in Astronomy (1956), Vol. 2, 1722.
- Keywords: Rule_quotes Subject_quotes Compliance_quotes Knowledge_quotes Understanding_quotes Skill_quotes Observation_quotes Idea_quotes Trick_quotes Courage_quotes Labor_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Creativity_quotes Prediction_quotes Analogy_quotes History_quotes Science_quotes Game_quotes Success_quotes Ingenious_quotes Cunning_quotes Daring_quotes Suggest_quotes Calculation_quotes Conventional_quotes Approach_quotes Order_quotes Follow_quotes Ruthless_quotes Disregard_quotes Method_quotes Unpredictable_quotes Guide_quotes Forecast_quotes Roulette_quotes Existence_quotes Present_quotes Future_quotes Value_quotes Learn_quotes Progress_quotes Mislead_quotes Strangle_quotes Ignore_quotes
John_Gribbin
Scientific Method
“The Big Idea that had been developed in the seventeenth century ... is now known as the scientific method. It says that the way to proceed when investigating how the world works is to first carry out experiments and/or make observations of the natural world. Then, develop hypotheses to explain these observations, and (crucially) use the hypothesis to make predictions about the future outcome of future experiments and/or observations. After comparing the results of those new observations with the predictions of the hypotheses, discard those hypotheses which make false predictions, and retain (at least, for the time being) any hypothesis that makes accurate predictions, elevating it to the status of a theory. Note that a theory can never be proved right. The best that can be said is that it has passed all the tests applied so far.”
- Source: John R. Gribbin. In The Fellowship: the Story of a Revolution (2005), 275.
- Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Idea_quotes Development_quotes Investigation_quotes World_quotes Experiment_quotes Observation_quotes Prediction_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Explanation_quotes Future_quotes Result_quotes Falsification_quotes Accuracy_quotes Theory_quotes Proof_quotes Testing_quotes Certainty_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Nature_quotes False_quotes Retain_quotes Discard_quotes Elevate_quotes Pass_quotes Test_quotes
Stephen_Hawking
Indefinite Past
“In classical physics, the past is assumed to exist as a definite series of events, but according to quantum physics, the past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities. Even the universe as a whole has no single past or history.”
- Source: Hawking & Mlodinow, Scientific American, October 2010.
Robert_Heinlein
History
“A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.”
- Source: Written by Robert A. Heinlein in the book “Time Enough for Love”, published in 1973 by Putnam's Sons, ISBN: 0-399-11151-4. ISBN: 9781101503072 (ebook). Page 250 (Kindle edition).
- Keywords: Generation_quotes Ignore_quotes History_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes
Donald_Hoffman
AI Computation
“If we look at an LLM [Large Language Model] or a future AI [Artificial Intelligence], it's going to be some kind of computational system. And computational systems have their limits. We have Gödel who said that at a minimum. I'm betting that you and I are avatars of an infinite intelligence that's the true source of all creativity and that Einstein or any scientist taps into when they come up with their truly original ideas. The first step would be to say, if it's just a computational bias, then it doesn't transcend. It doesn't get to this true originality. But then there's a deeper level... These are just avatars in a particular headset. So why can't we create a new avatar in our headset that looks like a computer that is actually an avatar of the deep intelligence? If we are only going to stick with the computational thing... But somehow the [human] avatar is a portal into the infinite consciousness... And we know one way of creating new portals into this infinite consciousness, and that is having kids. So that is one technology that allows us to do that. Once we understand spacetime as a headset, and we understand the headset and at least some layers of its relationship to the infinite reality, that's the source of true insight and true originality and creativity, could we figure out new ways to open up genuine new portals, and might that look like AI… The jury is out.”
- Source: Donald Hoffman, in the YouTube video entitled “Donald Hoffman's New Approach To Consciousness” channel “Dr Brian Keating”. Online at <https://youtu.be/mU_WBela71Y?si=fNfLLsOsUDRDC1XD> posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. In video at 1:14:40.
- Keywords: Look_quotes LLM_quotes Large_quotes Language_quotes Model_quotes Future_quotes AI_quotes Artificial_quotes Intelligence_quotes Computation_quotes System_quotes Limit_quotes Gödel(topic)_quotes Minimum_quotes Bet_quotes Avatar_quotes Infinite_quotes True_quotes Source_quotes Creativity_quotes Einstein(topic)_quotes Scientist_quotes Tap_quotes Original_quotes Idea_quotes Bias_quotes Transcend_quotes Deep_quotes Level_quotes Particular_quotes Headset_quotes Create_quotes New_quotes Computer_quotes Actual_quotes Human_quotes Portal_quotes Consciousness_quotes Kid_quotes Technology_quotes Allow_quotes Understand_quotes Spacetime_quotes Relationship_quotes Reality_quotes Figure_quotes Way_quotes Open_quotes Genuine_quotes Jury_quotes
Grace_Hopper
Past and Future
“I've always been more interested in the future than in the past.”
- Source: As quoted in The Reader's Digest, October 1994, p. 185.
- Keywords: Time_quotes History_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes
Byron_K_Jennings
Science is a Construction
“Science is the construction of parsimonious, internally consistent models that can reliably predict future observations.”
- Source: Byron K. Jennings. As quoted in Mark Buchanan, 'Thesis: Madness in the Method', Nature Physics (1 Feb 2009), 5, No. 2, 83.
Carl_Jung
Supreme Meaning
“...the melting together of sense and nonsense... produces the supreme meaning. But the supreme meaning is the path, the way and the bridge to what is to come... The supreme meaning is not a meaning and not an absurdity, it is image and force in one, magnificence and force together.”
- Source: Written by Carl G. Jung in ‘The Red Book’, also known as ‘Liber Novus’, which was originally written from 1914 to 1930. It was first published in 2009 by W. W. Norton in a facsimile edition, complete with an English translation. The edition used here is the book ‘The Red Book: Liber Novus: A Reader's Edition’, written by C. G. Jung, edited with an introduction by Sonu Shamdasani, translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck, and Sonu Shamdasani; published by W. W. Norton in 2012; ISBN 978-0393089080; Page 120.
Daniel_Kahneman
Unpredictable Future
“The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.”
- Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow. 2011; ISBN 9780374275631.
- Keywords: Idea_quotes Future_quotes Prediction_quotes Undermine_quotes Day_quotes Easy_quotes Past_quotes Explanation_quotes
Immanuel_Kant
Character
“If it were possible for us to have so deep an insight into a man's character as shown both in inner and in outer actions, that every, even the least, incentive to these actions and all external occasions which affect them were so known to us that his future conduct could be predicted with as great a certainty as the occurrence of a solar or lunar eclipse, we could nevertheless still assert that the man is free.”
- Source: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788). In L. W. Beck (ed. & trans.), Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy (1949), 204-5.
- Keywords: Insight_quotes Character_quotes Action_quotes Incentive_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Certainty_quotes Eclipse_quotes Humanity_quotes Freedom_quotes Sun_quotes Moon_quotes Possible_quotes Man_quotes Inner_quotes Outer_quotes External_quotes Occasion_quotes Knowledge_quotes Conduct_quotes Occurence_quotes Solar_quotes Lunar_quotes Assert_quotes Free_quotes
Alan_Kay
Invent the Future
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
- Source: Alan Kay (1971) at a 1971 meeting between Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) scientists and Xerox planners. As reported in the Financial Times (1 Nov 1982). Also as reported by Alan Kay, in an email on Sept 17, 1998 to Peter W. Lount.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Invention_quotes Best_quotes Way_quotes
John_F_Kennedy
Resources
“Malthus argued a century and a half ago that man, by using up all his available resources, would forever press on the limits of subsistence, thus condemning humanity to an indefinite future of misery and poverty. We can now begin to hope and, I believe, know that Malthus was expressing not a law of nature, but merely the limitation then of scientific and social wisdom. The truth or falsity of his prediction will depend now, with the tools we have, on our own actions, now and in the years to come.”
- Source: John F. Kennedy, From Address to the Centennial Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1963), 'A Century of Scientific Conquest'. Online at The American Presidency Project.
- Keywords: Century_quotes Humanity_quotes Resource_quotes Limitation_quotes Subsistence_quotes Condemnation_quotes Indefinite_quotes Future_quotes Misery_quotes Poverty_quotes Hope_quotes Belief_quotes Law_quotes Nature_quotes Science_quotes Wisdom_quotes Society_quotes Truth_quotes Falsehood_quotes Prediction_quotes Dependency_quotes Tool_quotes Action_quotes Scarcity_quotes Abundance_quotes Malthus(topic)_quotes Argue_quotes Man_quotes Express_quotes Year_quotes Malthusian_quotes
Pierre-Simon_Laplace
System of Nature
“The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence that at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective position, motions, and general affects of all these entities at any time in the past or future. Physical astronomy, the branch of knowledge that does the greatest honor to the human mind, gives us an idea, albeit imperfect, of what such an intelligence would be. The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to follow their motions up to a certain point; and in order to determine the state of the system of these great bodies in past or future centuries, it suffices for the mathematician that their position and their velocity be given by observation for any moment in time. Man owes that advantage to the power of the instrument he employs, and to the small number of relations that it embraces in its calculations. But ignorance of the different causes involved in the production of events, as well as their complexity, taken together with the imperfection of analysis, prevents our reaching the same certainty about the vast majority of phenomena. Thus there are things that are uncertain for us, things more or less probable, and we seek to compensate for the impossibility of knowing them by determining their different degrees of likelihood. So it was that we owe to the weakness of the human mind one of the most delicate and ingenious of mathematical theories, the science of chance or probability.”
- Source: Pierre-Simon Laplace, 'Recherches, 1º, sur l'Intégration des Équations Différentielles aux Différences Finies, et sur leur Usage dans la Théorie des Hasards' (1773, published 1776). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 8, 144-5, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 26.
- Keywords: State_quotes Present_quotes System_quotes Nature_quotes Consequence_quotes Moment_quotes Precede_quotes Conceive_quotes Intelligence_quotes Instant_quotes Comprehension_quotes Relationship_quotes Universe_quotes Position_quotes Motion_quotes Causality_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes Astronomy_quotes Knowledge_quotes Humanity_quotes Mind_quotes Idea_quotes Imperfect_quotes Law_quotes Celestial_quotes Body_quotes Mass_quotes Distance_quotes Analysis_quotes Determine_quotes Century_quotes Mathematics_quotes Velocity_quotes Observation_quotes Advantage_quotes Power_quotes Instrument_quotes Calculation_quotes Ignorance_quotes Cause_quotes Production_quotes Event_quotes Complexity_quotes Certainty_quotes Majority_quotes Phenomena_quotes Probability_quotes Impossibility_quotes Likelihood_quotes Weakness_quotes Theory_quotes Chance_quotes
Alan_Perlis
First Software Engineering Conference
“This is the first conference ever held on software engineering and it behooves us to take this conference quite seriously since it will likely set the tone of future work in this field”
- Source: Alan Jay Perlis in a report entitled Software Engineering: Report of a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. Chaired by Friedrich Ludwig Bauer. Edited by P. Naur; B. Randell. Conference held 1968-10-07 through 1968-10-11 in Garmisch, Germany. OCLC: 35337842. See http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/index.html ; http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/nato1968.PDF ; https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1102020 ; https://books.google.com/books/about/Software_engineering.html?id=Uc9QAAAAYAAJ . Page 79, Keynote address.
Willard_Van_Orman_Quine
Science as a Tool
“As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries - not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.”
- Source: From A Logical Point of View (1953), p. 44.
- Keywords: Empirical_quotes Thinking_quotes Conceptual_quotes Scheme_quotes Science_quotes Tool_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Experience_quotes Light_quotes Past_quotes Physical_quotes Object_quotes Import_quotes Situation_quotes Convenience_quotes Intermediary_quotes Definition_quotes Term_quotes Irreducible_quotes Posit_quotes Compare_quotes Epistemology_quotes God_quotes Myth_quotes Part_quotes Physics_quotes Belief_quotes Error_quotes Point_quotes Degree_quotes Kind_quotes Entity_quotes Culture_quotes Superior_quotes Proof_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Device_quotes Management_quotes Structure_quotes Flux_quotes Homer(topic)_quotes Efficacious_quotes
Hans_Reichenbach
Picture of Scientific Method
“The picture of scientific method drafted by modern philosophy is very different from traditional conceptions. Gone is the ideal of a universe whose course follows strict rules, a predetermined cosmos that unwinds itself like an unwinding clock. Gone is the ideal of the scientist who knows the absolute truth. The happenings of nature are like rolling dice rather than like revolving stars; they are controlled by probability laws, not by causality, and the scientist resembles a gambler more than a prophet. He can tell you only his best posits — he never knows beforehand whether they will come true. He is a better gambler, though, than the man at the green table, because his statistical methods are superior. And his goal is staked higher — the goal of foretelling the rolling dice of the cosmos. If he is asked why he follows his methods, with what title he makes his predictions, he cannot answer that he has an irrefutable knowledge of the future; he can only lay his best bets. But he can prove that they are best bets, that making them is the best he can do — and if a man does his best, what else can you ask of him?”
- Source: Hans Reichenbach, The Rise of Scientific Philosophy (1951, 1973), 248-9. Collected in James Louis Jarrett and Sterling M. McMurrin (eds.), Contemporary Philosophy: A Book of Readings (1954), 376.
- Keywords: Picture_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Modern_quotes Philosophy_quotes Differences_quotes Tradition_quotes Ideal_quotes Universe_quotes Causality_quotes Course_quotes Strict_quotes Rule_quotes Predetermine_quotes Cosmos_quotes Unwind_quotes Clock_quotes Science_quotes Absolute_quotes Certainty_quotes Truth_quotes Nature_quotes Roll_quotes Dice_quotes Probability_quotes Revolve_quotes Star_quotes Control_quotes Law_quotes Gambler_quotes Prophet_quotes Prediction_quotes Posit_quotes Knowledge_quotes Beforehand_quotes True_quotes Statistics_quotes Superior_quotes Goal_quotes Stake_quotes High_quotes Foretell_quotes Methodology_quotes Title_quotes Answer_quotes Irrefutability_quotes Future_quotes Bet_quotes Proof_quotes Best_quotes Ask_quotes Conception_quotes Scientist_quotes Man_quotes
Nicholas_Rescher
Inherent Unpredictability
“The inherent unpredictability of future scientific developments — the fact that no secure inference can be drawn from one state of science to another — has important implications for the issue of the limits of science. It means that present-day science cannot speak for future science: it is in principle impossible to make any secure inferences from the substance of science at one time about its substance at a significantly different time. The prospect of future scientific revolutions can never be precluded. We cannot say with unblinking confidence what sorts of resources and conceptions the science of the future will or will not use. Given that it is effectively impossible to predict the details of what future science will accomplish, it is no less impossible to predict in detail what future science will not accomplish. We can never confidently put this or that range of issues outside 'the limits of science', because we cannot discern the shape and substance of future science with sufficient clarity to be able to say with any assurance what it can and cannot do. Any attempt to set 'limits' to science — any advance specification of what science can and cannot do by way of handling problems and solving questions — is destined to come to grief.”
- Source: Nicholas Rescher, The Limits of Science (1984), 102-3.
- Keywords: Inherent_quotes Prediction_quotes Unpredictability_quotes Future_quotes Science_quotes Development_quotes Progress_quotes Inference_quotes Conclusion_quotes State_quotes Causality_quotes Importance_quotes Imply_quotes Issue_quotes Limitation_quotes Meaning_quotes Present_quotes Day_quotes Speak_quotes Principle_quotes Impossibility_quotes Substance_quotes Time_quotes Significance_quotes Differences_quotes Prospect_quotes Revolution_quotes Preclude_quotes Blink_quotes Confidence_quotes Resource_quotes Conception_quotes Detail_quotes Accomplish_quotes Range_quotes Shape_quotes Sufficient_quotes Clarity_quotes Assurance_quotes Attempt_quotes Specification_quotes Advance_quotes Handle_quotes Problem_quotes Solution_quotes Question_quotes Destiny_quotes Grief_quotes Secure_quotes Outside_quotes Discern_quotes
Carl_Sagan
Technology Decisions
“...we live in an age based on science and technology with formidable technological powers... and if we don't understand it, by we I mean the general public, if it's something that - 'Oh, I'm not good at that. I don't know anything about it' then who is making all the decisions about science and technology that are going to determine what kind of future our children live in?”
- Source: Carl Sagen speaking in an video entitled 'CARL SAGEN - A Way of Thinking' posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/J1cNaFG1VII , at 00:00:22 in video. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
Herbert_Simon
Predictions and Design
“Since the consequences of design lie in the future, it would seem that forecasting is an unavoidable part of every design process. If that is true, it is cause for pessimism about design, for the record in forecasting even such 'simple' variables as population is dismal. If there is any way to design without forecasts, we should seize on it.”
- Source: Simon, H. A. (1996). The Sciences of the Artificial (Third Edition). Computers & Mathematics with Applications (3rd ed., Vol. 33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN: 9780585360102. Retrieved 2018-08-23 from https://monoskop.org/images/9/9c/Simon_Herbert_A_The_Sciences_of_the_Artificial_3rd_ed.pdf. Chapter 6, page 146.
Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
Great Men Needed
“In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that great men are not needed. On the contrary, the first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men; and under systematic management the best man rises to the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before.”
- Source: F.W. Taylor, 1911. Principles of Scientific Management. New York and London, Harper & brothers. p. 7: Introduction.
- Keywords: Merit_quotes Worker_quotes Employment_quotes System_quotes First_Class_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Future_quotes Management_quotes Past_quotes Man_quotes First_quotes Sense_quotes Great_quotes Men_quotes Need_quotes Contrary_quotes Object_quotes Science_quotes Good_quotes Develop_quotes Best_quotes Rise_quotes Top_quotes Certain_quotes Rapid_quotes
Edward_Teller
Predictions Are Dangerous
“One may say that predictions are dangerous particularly for the future. If the danger involved in a prediction is not incurred, no consequence follows and the uncertainty principle is not violated.”
- Source: Edward Teller, Wendy Teller and Wilson Talley, Conversations from the Dark Side of Physics (1991, 2002), 235.
Alan_Turing
See Ahead
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
- Source: From the paper entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” by Alan Turing. Published in 1936 in “Mind”, volume 49, number 236.
- Keywords: See_quotes Short_quotes Distance_quotes Ahead_quotes Plenty_quotes Need_quotes Do_quotes Future_quotes
Shannon_Vallor
AI Holds Us
“AI holds us frozen in place, fascinated by endless permutations of a reflected past that only the magic of marketing can disguise as the future.”
- Source: From the book “The AI Mirror” by Shannon Vallor. Published 2024 by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0197759066. Introduction, page 6.
Stephen_Wolfram
Future Jumping
“There’s a certain robustness to time when viewed in these computational terms. There’s no way to ‘jump ahead’ in time; the only way to find out what will happen in the future is to go through the irreducible computational steps to get there.”
- Source: Stephen Wolfram. “On the Nature of Time” published 2024-10-08 at https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2024/10/on-the-nature-of-time/.