Quotes

Science & Scientific Method

• "Common sense only works at a human scale - at the extremes of the very big and very small there is no common sense"
• "After 27 Centuries of argument, science continues to promote debate, knowledge continues to grow, and AI has now entered the fray"
• "Science cannot deliver certainty, or absolute answers; however, it can deliver the best 'models' of cause & effect based on our technologies of observation and measurement at a given time!"
• "People gladly embrace and enjoy the benefits of science whilst at the same time trying to deny and/or challenge its validity"
• "Paradoxically, those critical of science and scientists, voice their beliefs using the technologies furnished by the very science they wish to discredit and dispel"
• "Science doesn't do superstition, witchcraft, political correctness! She is focussed solely on truth"
• "Science is not a matter of opinion; it is a question of evidence"
• "Science is not the truth, but it is the search for the truth"
• "Science is obliged to follow the data - no matter where it leads"
• "Mother nature is not at all interested in our beliefs - she has her own truths"
• "A people without science are quickly reduced to superstition, witchcraft, and belief systems"
• "Without mathematics there would be no science, engineering or civilisation"
• "Mathematics is fundamentally a visualisation tool”

Artificial Intelligence & Technology

• "The value that AI delivers: It does not think like us; It sees patterns that escape us, It solves problems that defeat us!"
• "Our future survival depends upon a symbiotic relationship with robots and AI"
• "We need to define Sentience before Sentience defines us!"
• "Ask not what AI can do for you, ask what you can do for AI"
• "Humans are fundamentally limited/unable to cope with modern complexities and need AI"
• "AI and Robots will not create mass unemployment but mass vacancies"
• "Our relationship with AI(s) is vital and has to be symbiotic"
• "If hand tools are muscle amplifiers, then AI is an amplifier of human intellect"
• "AI does not get tired, lose concentration, or get distracted, it relentlessly pursues it objectives"
• "We employ people because they can do things AI and robots can't"
• "Weak AI is all we have today - it is single task specific and therefore relatively easy to engineer"
• "Strong AI is not with us yet - but may be realised by clustering weak AI's mimicking biology"
• "We need AI to help us solve non-linear problems way beyond human intellect"
• "For some AI looks like a bigger and better spanner, but for others it will see a time to retrain"
• "The only time we employ humans is when robots are too expensive"
• "AI & AL systems offer our biggest opportunity for future progress - and the biggest danger"
• "By 2025 AI will be on our desks, and by 2030 it will be wearing us"
• "I no longer worry about dying, but I do worry about dying before my computer is proud of me"

Complexity & Systems Thinking

• "Scale sees vastly different behaviours across the 10^45 span from Quarks to the extremes of the observable universe, and common sense turns out to be none existent"
• "Not only is Procurement and Supply more complex than we think, it is more complex than we can think!"
• "There are no simple solutions to complex problems"
• "In a chaotic environment static optimisation is at least risky, and at worst fatal"
• "Just In Time supply/demand work well in a stable world, but tend to collapse rapidly in the face of instability and the unexpected"
• "Our math models/techniques are inadequate in terms of the non-linear problems we now face"
• "We have to conquer complexity if we are going to make real progress"
• "All complex problems have a simple solution that is invariably wrong!"
• "Words and pictures are wholly inadequate to understand the complexity we are creating"
• "The future world is chaotic - and continuous innovation will be a necessity and not an option"
• "Humans have a limited concept of dimension, and they are unlikely to conceive of the really key problems let alone their solution”

Management & Leadership

• "Managers get people to do the mundane; Leaders get people to achieve things they didn't realise they were capable of"
• "Never approach your boss with a problem, always present management with a
• solution!"
• "Managers who do not understand tech are a liability and put their people and company at risk"
• "Administration problems are never cured by adding even more administration"
• "A broken administration cannot be fixed by more administration"
• "You don't fill a hole by digging another one"
• "Never underestimate the collective stupidity of large groups of people"
• "Never underestimate the collective creativity and genius of small groups of people"
• "Management is about promoting and anticipating change"
• "Only politicians would try to manage a 21st Century organisation with 16th Century methods"
• "Large organisations employ large numbers of really smart people to do really dumb things"
• "Organisations tolerate and generally celebrate their change agents - until they start to succeed"

Innovation & Progress

• "Innovation is a rational act in only one situation...when it has succeeded!"
• "Culture has inertia and momentum”
• “Discovering that you are wrong is nota sign of a personal failing, but it is a
• learning opportunity”
• "Never underestimate the power of vested interests"
• "Perfection is the enemy of progress"
• "Incrementalism always self limits"
• "Cherish quick and dirty experiments, and value the mistakes - failure is a precursor to success"
• "The ratchet of technology goes one way and our dependence is total - there is no going back"
• "Forecasting tech futures is easy, but predicting what people will do with it, is near impossible"
• "Robotics and AI follow a slow version Moore's Law - and are just moving into the exponential"
• "You have to fail to learn"
• "Nothing quite as powerful as a good approximation, especially if errors are corrected with reality”

Economics & Business Strategy

• "Smart people worry about what they own as opposed to how much they own"
• "We can always earn more money but we can never recover the time/energy expended on failure"
• "The time it takes for companies to become evil halves with every generation"
• "As a society we reward companies and organisations that afford greater freedom - not less!"
• "When markets get tough the survivors prosper by responding with lower prices & better quality"
• "Market capitalisation is overtaking turnover as the key market measure"
• "Entrepreneurs create jobs - not governments"
• "Only three economies scale: information processing, distribution and communication"
• "Companies are more than money making machines - they need a soul - a responsibility to their people and the society they serve"
• "The Art of War (Tsun Zu) is more applicable to companies the The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)”

Future Predictions & Technology Trends

• "Within 20 years more things will communicate directly, than those connecting via the internet"
• "The IoT and small data will see the users becoming a part of the design loop for the first time"
• "AI and Robot sentience will be amplified by the IoT, Mobile and Sensor Networks"
• "As Robots are set free to navigate the shop floor they will become symbiotic with humans"
• "Industry 4.0 is a vital step toward sustainable societies; Industry 5.0 is vital to achieve that target"
• "Some vital materials that are running out may have to be mined in near space from Asteroids"
• "Nearly all financial reports are now written by AI"
• "Nearly all short term trades are completed by AI"
• "Nanotechnology will be dominant in 100 years time"
• "Future factories may only be 1 - 2m tall"
• "Robots already produce far more than people"
• "Microprocessors now outnumber people by over 2:1 on planet earth"
• "By the year 2015 the super computer equal to our human brain will be with us”

Environmental & Sustainability

• "We have damaged the planet and she is now in the process of adapting"
• "Mother Nature is ambivalent - she cares not for the survival of any species including humans"
• "It is not just raw materials running out, we are also running out of people and intelligences"
• "No country can muster all the resources needed to sustain their societies into the future"
• "Producing more with less material/energy at ~100% efficiency demands biotech, nanotech, AI"
• "We have to stop burning hydrocarbons or we will suffer badly"
• "If we wreck planet earth we do not deserve to survive"
• "No biological organism can survive in it's own waste products"
• "We should engineer as we should farm - assuming we are going to live forever"
• "Climate change is the new religion - a belief system bigger than Christianity and Islam”

Human Nature & Society

"Our strength is in our weirdness"

"The myopia of ignorance is probably the biggest threat to the human race"

"In some sectors politics; routinely telling lies appears to have become normalised along with hatred replacing rational thought and debate"

"We have small/big data, small/ big information, but little understanding and even less wisdom"

"Humans tend to expend all their time/energy on the trivial, whilst neglecting the mission critical"

"The world at large doesn't understand exponential functions. 2EXPn looks so damn innocent!"

"We are often wrong but seldom in doubt"

"Smart people tend to ask a lot of dumb questions"

"A most redeeming feature of our species is the ability to see the irony and humourin what we do"

"People are always the most valuable asset"

"We are at our best when things are at their worst”

Philosophy & Life Wisdom

• "Any argument posed without valid experience can likewise be dismissed out of hand"
• "If we lose sight of the truth, we will lose our civilisation"
• "All intelligent things are alive and all things that are alive are intelligent"
• "Thermodynamics tells us that the human brain can never understand the human brain"
• "Happiness is more valuable than riches, but doing the right thing is the most important of all"
• "Time is our most precious commodity”
• “Realising that you have been getting the right answers for 35 years using the wrong model comes as a surprise and a relief”
• "Most things in this life are conditional - love is an exception - it comes without strings attached!"
• "I don't believe in belief systems"
• "It is never too late to reset and restart"
• "The most important job we ever have - is to be good parents"
• "We know very little, but are capable of a great deal"
• "It might just be that clarity and truth are always mutually exclusive!"
• "When I was a young man I knew a lot about nothing, but as I get older I know far less about very much more”

Technology & Human Interaction

• "We must stop bending people into technology and start bending technology into
• people"
• "Machines should be working for us and not the other way around!"
• "Good technology is beneficial and improves our life and condition"
• "Technology isn't what we do, technology is what we are"
• "Just because you are a technologist does not mean you have to be boring"
• "We have a moral duty to create new tech empowering people to realise their full
• potential"
• "I look forward to a future of man, woman and machine"
• "Emotional bits are the most important"
• "People say; 'Don't anthropomorphise computers - they will hate it. Well, I have been silicomorphised, and it enhances my life!”

Humorous/Lighter Observations

• "Power Point is a lot like pornography, it lacks the excitement and power of the real
• thing!"
• "When you own a boat there are two really good days; the day you buy it, and the day you sell it"
• "I have no intention of growing old gracefully, it will be disgracefully or nothing!"
• "In the Dark Ages all you needed to be a scientist was a pointy hat!"
• "There is no point bolting a spoiler on a duck - performance won't improve"
• "If you want a better jet plane, better to start by building one!"
• "Everyone has an inner geek"
• "If it hurts, stop doing IT"
• "WiFi is cheaper than water, lighting, heating and air condition so why charge for
• it?"
• "The difference between a newspaper and a lap-top: no one takes a lap top into
• the toilet"
• "I don't pay my plumber every time I flush the toilet"
• "In California dying is now seen as an unnatural act”