It is dangerously destabilizing to have half the world on the cutting edge of technology while the other half struggles on the bare edge of survival.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the risks of technological disparity between different parts of the world.
William J. Clinton's quote emphasizes the dangers associated with a world where technological advancements exist for some while others are left to struggle for basic necessities. This gap can lead to instability and conflict, as the disparity between the technologically advanced and those barely surviving can foster resentment and hinder global progress.
In practice
In a keynote speech addressing global inequality, this quote could underscore the importance of technology access.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product.
I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
We're already cyborgs. Your phone and your computer are extensions of you, but the interface is through finger movements or speech, which are very slow.
I mean, you can't have advertising be the only official business of the information economy if the information economy is going to take over.
To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.
A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves in its use. If the tool is a programming language this influence is, whether we like it or not, an influence on our thinking habits.... A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.
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