QuoteProject
This is actually a very important principle that science is learning about large systems like evolution and that futurists are learning about anticipating human society: just because a future scenario is plausible doesn't mean we can get there from here.
Kevin Kelly
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Future possibilities may seem realistic, but the path to reach them is often complex and uncertain.

Kevin Kelly's quote emphasizes the distinction between plausibility and feasibility in the context of large systems, such as evolution and societal progress. While we can envision potential future scenarios, the actual journey from our current situation to those futures is fraught with challenges and unpredictabilities, underscoring the need for careful planning and understanding of complexity in order to navigate change effectively.

Themes

FutureChangeEvolutionPossibilityComplexity

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about innovation and adaptability.

More from Kevin Kelly

The way to build a complex system that works is to build it from very simple systems that work.
Kevin KellyRead
Humans are the reproductive organs of technology.
Kevin KellyRead

Similar quotes

...the core values that underpin sustainable development - interdependence, empathy, equity, personal responsibility and intergenerational justice - are the only foundation upon which any viable vision of a better world can possibly be constructed
Jonathon PorrittRead
Armchair poverty tourism has been around as long as authors have written about class. As an author, I have struggled myself with the nuances of writing about poverty without reducing any community to a catalog of its difficulties.
Leslie JamisonRead
It is an item of faith that we are children of God; there is plenty of experience in us against it. The faith that surmounts this evidence and is able to warm itself at the fire of God's love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness: It is a fatal mistake to think of holiness as a possession which we have distinct from our faith... Faith is the very highest form of our dependence on God.
Richard LovelaceRead
In the long run, the people are our only appeal. The only ones who can free us are ourselves.
Assata ShakurRead
It's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights...
Jon StewartRead
In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.
Mary WollstonecraftRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.