Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.
When I left NASA, I was looking at how you could use space technologies for developing countries' work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mae Jemison reflects on her departure from NASA, focusing on the potential of space technologies to benefit developing countries.
In this quote, Mae Jemison expresses her vision for applying the advancements in space technologies to solve challenges faced by developing countries. She emphasizes the importance of using scientific progress to improve life on Earth and how innovations from space exploration can be repurposed for social development, inspiring others to consider the broader applications of technology beyond its original context.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation at a technology conference, I can quote Mae Jemison to highlight the importance of practical applications of scientific advancements.
More from Mae Jemison
All quotes βGreatness can be captured in one word: lifestyle. Life is God's gift to you, style is what you make of it.
To survive as a species on this planet, we're going to have to see ourselves as Earthlings.
We look at science as something very elite, which only a few people can learn. That's just not true. You just have to start early and give kids a foundation. Kids live up, or down, to expectations.
Intuitive versus analytical? That's a foolish choice. It's foolish, just like trying to choose between being realistic or idealistic. You need both in life.
The reality is the majority of us will not get off this planet. So the long run is, some kind of space exploration has to benefit us here on Earth.
Similar quotes
Windmills installed around the world converting their direct current into alternating current and feeding the electric energy into the world network can harvest the planet Earth's prime daily energy income source-the wind--and adequately supply all the world's energy needs
The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it.
Genome design is going to be a key part of the future. That's why we need fast, cheap, accurate DNA synthesis, so you can make a lot of iterations of something and test them.
We cannot even predict what kinds of emergent properties would appear when animals begin interacting as part of a brain-net. In theory, you could imagine that a combination of brains could provide solutions that individual brains cannot achieve by themselves.
It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved by probably some kind of Darwinian means to a very, very high level of technology- and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer.
The act of smelling something, anything, is remarkably like the act of thinking. Immediately at the moment of perception, you can feel the mind going to work, sending the odor around from place to place, setting off complex repertories through the brain, polling one center after another for signs of re recognition, for old memories and old connection.