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.
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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.
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I tried out various experiments described in treatises on physics and chemistry, and the results were sometimes unexpected. At times, I would be encouraged by a little unhoped-for success; at others, I would be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience.
But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.
Intellectual-property rules are clearly necessary to spur innovation: if every invention could be stolen, or every new drug immediately copied, few people would invest in innovation. But too much protection can strangle competition and can limit what economists call 'incremental innovation' - innovations that build, in some way, on others.
Going to Mars would evolve humankind into a two-planet species.
From all we have learnt about the structure of living matter, we must be prepared to find it working in a manner that cannot be reduced to the ordinary laws of physics. And that not on the ground that there is any 'new force' or what not, directing the behaviour of the single atoms within a living organism, but because the construction is different from anything we have yet tested in the physical laboratory.