Quotes About Progress

twenty million years.

and were making themselves into many things they have never been before: augmented, multi-sexed, and most importantly, very long lived, the oldest at that point being around two hundred years old. But not one whit wiser, or even more intelligent. Sad but true: individual intelligence probably peaked in the Upper Paleolithic, and we have been self-domesticated creatures ever since.

I believe the twenty-first century can become the most important century of human history. I think a new reality is emerging. Whether this view is realistic or not, there is no harm in making an effort." —The Dalai Lama

Kim Stanley Robinson

I believe that Man is good. I believe that we stand at the dawn of a century that will be more peaceful and prosperous than any in history.

Max Planck once said that a new paradigm takes over not when it convinces its opponents, but when its opponents eventually die.

bubbles and Ponzi schemes and capitalism all have to keep growing or else they are in deep shit.

history never ends, and good is accomplished against the immense black-hole gravity of greed and fear.

The way got harder. One day they made only a kilometer.

Indeed, if ever you are asked to choose between fixists and mobilists, as the two sides were called during the plate-tectonics controversy—or between the stabilists and the dynamicists in the current Sirius debate—always choose the dynamicists. History is on your side.

Inequality has now reached levels not seen since the so-called Gilded Age of the 1890s.

But that was back in the twentieth century, in the dark ages

Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson

But it isn't working fast enough." He tried to compose himself. "If you took your job seriously, you'd be looking into how to make change happen faster. Some things might be against the law, but in that case the law is wrong. I think the principle was set at Nuremberg—you're wrong to obey orders that are wrong.

In a storm the Flatiron appeared to be moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer—a picture of new America still in the making. said Alfred Steiglitz

History directing evolution.

We are making a better way to live. This was the myth, they had all grown up with it.

here's the genuine thoughtfulness and deep consideration for sake of truth and meaningful understanding. There's the recognition that if there were simple answers, we'd have already implemented simple solutions – and that not being the case, people have to work hard to discover the best - imperfect but with iteration ever-less flawed - courses of action and forget the pedantic and simple-minded debate points that so often mar discussions that should lead to progress.

Kim Stanley Robinson

What's the point? we asked. No more fishing. Good, we said.

With practice one could dodge the past almost entirely.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson