Tracing Quotations
Philip Rosedale? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The technology needed to implement virtual reality (VR) has been under development for decades. The company Linden Lab launched a popular virtual world called “Second Life” (SL) in 2003. The avatar of each user could move though a wide variety of 3D digital environments and interact with digital objects …
Continue reading “The 3D Web Will Rapidly Be the Dominant Thing and Everyone Will Have an Avatar”
Mark Zuckerberg? Neal Stephenson? William Gibson? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was changing its name to Meta (full name Meta Platforms). Zuckerberg spoke about an immersive internet called the metaverse. I think some science fiction (SF) author coined the term metaverse. Would you please explore this topic? …
Continue reading “In the Lingo, This Imaginary Place Is Known as the Metaverse”
John von Neumann? R.L. Duffus? Albert Wohlstetter? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The remarkable recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence have produced feelings of excitement and foreboding. Power, hope, and danger are intertwined with technological discoveries. A famous scientist emphasized the inevitability of challenges: For progress there is no cure. Would you please explore …
Nikola Tesla? Orrin E. Dunlap Jr.? Thomas P. Hughes? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla apparently said the following: Be alone, that is the secret of invention. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1934 Nikola Tesla was interviewed in “The New York Times” by …
Continue reading “Be Alone, That Is the Secret of Invention; Be Alone, That Is When Ideas Are Born”
Hester Lynch Piozzi? William James? Bertrand Russell? Mark Twain? Henry David Thoreau? Carl Sagan? Terry Pratchett? Samuel Purchas? John Locke? George B. Cheever? Joseph F. Berg? George Chainey? John Phoenix? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: According to legend a prominent scientist once presented a lecture on cosmology which discussed the solar system and galaxies. Afterwards, a …
Donald Barthelme? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: When I was a young child I found the number of books in my local library overwhelming. I wondered how one could find the time to read so many books? When I was a slightly older child, I concluded that there were a enormous number that you don’t have …
Continue reading “The Thing About Books Is, There Are Quite a Number You Don’t Have To Read”
Albert Einstein? Jerome Halprin? Abba Eban? Leonard Lyons? Sidney Greenberg? Paul Connett? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A popular quip highlights the distinction between the adjectives clever and wise: A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. This notion can also be expressed as follows: A clever person gets out of a situation …
Continue reading “A Clever Person Solves a Problem. A Wise Person Avoids It”
Marvin Minsky? Herbert A. Simon? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A top researcher in computer science in the 1960s contended that the problem of building machines with artificial intelligence (AI) would be largely solved within a generation. A statement of this type has been attributed to Marvin Minsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Would you …
Jeff Bezos? Wolfgang R. Schmitt? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Business leaders in technology-based companies are often asked for ten year predictions of change. Apparently, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, once responded by spinning the inquiry. He said there was a more important question: What’s not going to change in the next 10 years? He argued …
Continue reading “What’s Not Going To Change in the Next 10 Years?”
Peter H. Diamandis? Ankur Jain? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: One path to achieving great wealth is by building a vital new product or performing a widely needed service. Here are three versions of a pertinent adage: Want to become a billionaire? Then help a billion people. The best way to become a billionaire is to …
Continue reading “The Best Way To Become a Billionaire Is To Help a Billion People”