Wisdom in fragments

My thesis is that appropriately designed military robots will be better able to avoid civilian casualties than existing human war-fighters and might therefore make future wars more ethical.

Roboticist & Pioneer of Ethical Autonomous Systems and Robot Ethics

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.

Labor Rights Activist & Farm Workers Union Organizer

What analysts mean by 'game changing' is, in fact, the level of naturalisation of technology. This is the degree to which a technology becomes an intuitive part of human life.

It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world... it's going to be a game changer.

Co-Founder of Apple & Pioneer of Personal Computing

One basis for society is that of helping your neighbour — but in the software world this is piracy. To prevent this, the U.S. is putting in place practices which are like those in the former Soviet Union — computerized guards, propaganda in favour of licensing, rewards for informing on co-workers, and penalties which make distributing software as serious a crime

Founder of Free Software Movement & Creator of GNU Project

What I believe is the bigger benefit; is that it makes it much more difficult for governments to trick the domestic financial system to favour particular borrowers, to milk savers through variable interest rates and so forth.

Leading economist specializing in European monetary integration and financial crises.

When countries integrate themselves, they provide 'favours' resulting in wider and better opportunities for all and similarly, borrowers can tap the world pool of savings and they are supposed to benefit from that. That is the theory, though empirically, there is little evidence of these effects.

Leading economist specializing in European monetary integration and financial crises.

We can now, more accurately than ever before, view the transactions occurring within our system, identifying the originator(s), beneficiary(ies) and intermediaries along the chain.

All participants in a society have a responsibility to it's social contract.

Unfair taxation cripples economic development in a manner not dissimilar to third-world economic corruption.

Governments are keen to levy brutal taxes on the very engines that create the market for goods and services; lowering their propensity to spend and invest by removing the surpluses they would normally use to do so.

highly motivated teams, who are motivated by the 'end' (the cause) rather than the 'method' (the task)

individuals throughout an organisation are usually far more passionate and committed to the organisation than in most for-profit companies

Third sector organisations have learnt, through necessity, to rally their teams around a common goal

have to persuade people to part with money for goods or services that are used by others

have to scrape by on 'zilch' or, at most, on a fraction of what is taken for granted in the for-profit world.