No matter what problem you encounter, whether it's a grand challenge for humanity or a personal problem of your own, there's an idea out there that can overcome it. And you can find that idea.
Ray KurzweilRead
I'm an inventor. I became interested in long-term trends because an invention has to make sense in the world in which it is finished, not the world in which it is started.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Inventions should be designed with future trends in mind, not just current conditions.
Ray Kurzweil emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking in the process of invention. He suggests that for an invention to be successful and viable, it must align with the future context and trends of the world once it is completed, rather than the circumstances present at the time of its conception.
Themes
InventionFutureTrendsLong-TermInnovation
In practice
Example use cases
In a technology conference when discussing the future of AI and its implications on society.
More from Ray Kurzweil
All quotes →When I was a student at MIT, we all shared one computer and it took up a whole building. The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful. What now fits in your pocket 25 years from now will fit into a blood cell and will again be millions of times more cost effective.
Ray KurzweilRead
A successful person isn't necessarily better than her less successful peers at solving problems; her pattern-recognition facilities have just learned what problems are worth solving.
Ray KurzweilRead
When you talk to a human in 2035, you'll be talking to someone that's a combination of biological and non-biological intelligence.
Ray KurzweilRead
Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge.
Ray KurzweilRead
I'm working on artificial intelligence. Actually, natural language understanding, which is to get computers to understand the meaning of documents.
Ray KurzweilRead
Similar quotes
If we don't take an approach that looks holistically at the form a video-game platform should take in the future, then we're not able to sustain Nintendo 10 years down the road.
Satoru IwataRead
I think when you get older, things come along that you know are a test in some way of your ability to stay with it. And when e-mail came along, I was just going to fall in love with it. And I did. I can't believe it now - it's like one of those ex-husbands that you think, 'What was I thinking?'
Nora EphronRead
Technology is a tool, and it's a platform. Nobody gets arrested for being a blogger; people get arrested for dissent. Nobody gets arrested for putting information about themselves online; they get arrested for being an activist. I'm a strong believer in the fact that you should not blame the tools; you should blame the circumstances.
Jared CohenRead
You have to immerse yourself into a product and use it in order to really understand it and that's why I have a new cellphone every month or two.
Martin CooperRead
As our technology evolves, we will have the capacity to reach new, ever-increasing depths. The question is what kind of technology, in the end, do we want to deploy in the far reaches of the ocean? Tools of science, ecology and documentation, or the destructive tools of heavy industry?
Philippe Cousteau, Jr.Read
Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code.
Eric S. RaymondRead