Technological Progress Quotes

“The news today about "Atomic bombs" is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope "this will ensure peace" . . . Well we're in God's hands. And He does not look kindly on Babel-builders. (letter 102)”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters Of J.R.R. Tolkien

“[The] tremendous and still accelerating development of science and technology has not been accompanied by an equal development in social, economic, and political patterns...We are now...only beginning to explore the potentialities which it offers for developments in our culture outside technology, particularly in the social, political and economic fields. It is safe to predict that...such social inventions as modern-type Capitalism, Fascism, and Communism will be regarded as primitive experiments directed toward the adjustment of modern society to modern methods”
― Ralph Linton

“...apart from the seemingly magical internet, life in broad material terms isn't so different from what it was in 1953...The wonders portrayed in THE JETSONS, the space-age television cartoon from the 1960s, have not come to pass...Life is better and we have more stuff, but the pace of change has slowed down compared to what people saw two or three generations ago.”
― Tyler Cowen, The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better

“capital has become very sophisticated about absorbing people's free time because it doesn't want you to have free time because you might THINK...”
― David Harvey

“Each technological and scientific turning point evolves into an ontological consideration.”
― Roger Spitz, The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption: Volume III - Beta Your Life: Existence in a Disruptive World

“Anything we think we know today in relation to AI will change tomorrow.”
― Roger Spitz, The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption: Volume I - Reframing and Navigating Disruption

“Well the first War of the Machines seems to be drawing to its final inconclusive chapter - leaving, alas, everyone the poorer, many bereaved or maimed and millions dead, and only one thing triumphant: the Machines. As the servants of the Machines are becoming a privileged class, the Machines are going to be enormously more powerful. (letter 96)”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters Of J.R.R. Tolkien

“What you were taught 10-20 years ago is fast becoming obsolete. Upskill yourself and recreate your world”
― Nicky Verd

“All this is not to suggest that the growth in useful knowledge is leading us to a world of bliss. Athena's gifts were many: she gave King Cecrops the olive tree, but she also gave the city of Troy the wooden horse that led to its destruction. Technology makes people more powerful in exploiting nature, but how and for what purpose they do so remains indeterminate. If the twentieth century has shown us anything, it is that the capacity of humans for intolerance, stupidity, and selfishness has not declined as their technological power has increased.”
― Joel Mokyr, The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy

“There are no restrictions or barriers for preventing someone from becoming an addict to a technological device.”
― Asa Don Brown

“If we can progress from arrowheads to the internet, why can’t we progress from violence to peace?”
― Janet Turpin Myers

“New technologies are impacting consumer consumption and driving technological innovations in digital media, so if you want to remain relevant you must become comfortable with the ever-changing creative process.”
― Germany Kent

“Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.”
― Samuel Butler, Darwin Among The Machines

“Technology and innovation may aid, speed, support and even prolong the human race - but only love and compassion can save it.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“The order of discovery concerning the materials in the human environment and of the technology that resulted from such discoveries was not haphazard or accidental. The order of discovery followed a logical order and an order that it had to follow. The easier discoveries were made before the harder discoveries; discoveries that were dependent upon prior discoveries being made, were only made after those discoveries; and inventions that were not economic or did not meet human needs were not made until they made economic sense or until a need arose. The course of human social and cultural history is written into the structure of the universe.”
― Rochelle Forrester, How Change Happens: A Theory of Philosophy of History, Social Change and Cultural Evolution

“We need machines, but more than that we need humans who know how to use those machines for the greater good.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Wise Mating: A Treatise on Monogamy

“Fears of robotics and technology arise, I think, from two human frailties. One is cognitive: we simply do not know what ­future technological change ­will be and thus cannot tell what new jobs will be created, what our ­future needs ­will be, or how raw materials ­will be used. The second is psychological: we get a thrill from fear of the unknown—in this case, the
scary and yet alluring prospect of metallic robots replacing flesh-­and-­blood workers on the factory floor.”
― Branko Milanović, Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World

“The reality is that AI is there to act as a supplement to human life and expand our capacities.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Health without progress is potential unused, whereas progress without health is potential abused.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Gospel of Technology

“In order to succeed in today’s fast paced world, we have to be willing to change by accepting new technologies and new ways of doing things much more quickly than ever before. This involves allowing other people to challenge us to change in areas where we have blinders on.”
― Miles Anthony Smith

“A world full of technological advancements but without a single caring heart, is more dead than alive.”
― Abhijit Naskar, No Foreigner Only Family

“High and mighty tech won't make this world better, till we place humanity at our highest altar.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Solo Standing on Guard: Life Before Law

“Healthy and humane use of technology lies beyond the glory and gloom of innovation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Insan: When The World is Family

“It's not technology that does the harm, it's the person wielding it.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“I built my first circuit board, when I was eleven, without all the fancy resources available to the children in the west. But anybody can build a circuit, that's no biggie. Build a circuit that empowers a society - that my friend, is called humanitarian technology. And that’s the kind of technology this world desperately needs.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament

“Most people would pull out their smartphones and Google away. Unfortunately, my job -- obsessively locating missing people -- doesn't pay at all, while my side hustle -- bartending part-time at the location of the moment -- doesn't pay well. The result is that my "smart" phone is an old flip phone with a limited data plan.”
― Lisa Gardner, One Step Too Far

“Ethics & Prototypes (The Sonnet)

Take morality out of science and,
All you've left is one big conspiracy theory.
Abundance of facts doesn't make something right,
If it has no regard for the supreme fact of humanity.
Just because we can innovate, doesn't mean we should,
Science can no more be measured by the query of could.
In future we'll be able to pre-edit a newborn baby,
But just because we could, doesn't mean we should.
Only a true scientist will realize the truth in this,
A mind that can look past the pomp into the purpose,
While counterfeit tech giants try to turn the world,
Into a giant lifeless robot made of bolts and nuts.
So better keep radical designs hidden from public eyes.
Some prototypes must never ever be commercialized.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“More to Technology (The Sonnet)

Some prototypes must never be commercialized,
Not till we learn to look beyond monetary value.
Write some fiction instead without revealing schematics,
If you want the possibility to survive through.
Technology is a stupidly predictable phenomenon,
What one person can imagine another can rig together.
All it takes is an infinite supply of persistence,
Voila - fiction of today turns reality centuries later!
So I say again, ask the question of "should" not "could",
If you want some tech to bring light not silent regress.
Because once you put the schematics out into the world,
All your brilliance will fall short to undo the damage.
There's more to technology than startups 'n entrepreneurship.
Power without responsibility causes disparity not uplift.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Humanitarian Industrialization

Fourth industrial revolution my eye! We haven't yet recovered from the disparities produced by the first, second and third industrial revolutions. Morons keep peddling cold and pompous dreams devoid of humanity, and morons keep consuming them like good little backboneless vermin. Grow a backbone already!

We always look at the glorious aspects of industrialization and overlook all those countless lives that are ruined by it. But it's okay! As long as we are not struck by a catastrophe ourselves, our sleep of moronity never breaks - so long as our comfort is unchallenged, and enhanced rather, it's okay if millions keep falling through the cracks.

So long as you can afford a smartphone that runs smooth like butter, it doesn't matter if it is produced by modern day slave labors who can't even afford the basic essentials of living. With all the revenue the tech companies earn by charging you a thousand dollar for a hundred dollar smartphone, they can't even pay decent wages to the people working their butt off to manufacture their assets - because apparently, it is more important for the people at the top to afford private jets and trips to space, than the factory workers to afford healthcare, housing and a couple of square meals a day.

And this you call industrialization - well done - you just figured out the secret to glory without being bothered by something so boring as basic humanity.

I say to you here and now, listen well - stop abusing revolutionary scientific discoveries in the making of a cold, mechanistic, disparity infested world - use science and technology to wipe out the disparities, not cause them. Break free from your modern savagery of inhuman industrialization, and focus your mind on humanitarian industrialization.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo

“Progress would be wonderful — if only it would stop.”
― Robert Musil