We Do Not Need To Have An

The Technologies Which Have Had The Most Profound Effects On Human Life Are Usually Simple. A Good Example Of A Simple Technology With Profound Historical Consequences Is Hay. ... It Was Hay That Allowed Populations To Grow And Civilizations To Flourish Among The Forests Of Northern Europe. Hay Moved The Greatness Of Rome To Paris And London, And Later To Berlin And Moscow And New York.

It's Amazing How Much Progress There's Been In China, And Also India. Those Are The Places That Really Matter - They're Half Of The World's Population. They're The Places Where Things Are Enormously Better Now Than They Were 50 Years Ago. And I Don't See Anything That's Going To Stop That.

In Desperation I Asked Fermi Whether He Was Not Impressed By The Agreement Between Our Calculated Numbers And His Measured Numbers. He Replied, "how Many Arbitrary Parameters Did You Use For Your Calculations?" I Thought For A Moment About Our Cut-off Procedures And Said, "four." He Said, "i Remember My Friend Johnny Von Neumann Used To Say, With Four Parameters I Can Fit An Elephant, And With Five I Can Make Him Wiggle His Trunk." With That, The Conversation Was Over.

Our Thinking Is Permeated By Our Historical Myths

I Think It's A Big Mistake To Decide Too Soon What You're Going To Do With Your Life.