Sound Bytes

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that in the long run -- and often in the short one -- the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.

— Arthur C. Clarke, Science fiction author and physicist

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Internet going to the car is the next big wave. It'll allow locational-based opportunities in terms of reaching customers in a way you've never been able to before.

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— Gary Shapiro, President, Consumer Electronics Show

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In the future, social networks will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be.

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— Charlene Li, Influential tech blogger

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The successful collaborative projects I’ve seen are those that have a core purpose, and those that I’ve seen fail are a little vague about what it is they’re trying to do.

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— Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder

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Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

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— Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO

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Computers shouldn’t be unusable. You don’t need to know how to work a telephone switch to make a phone call, or how to use the Hoover Dam to take a shower, or how to work a nuclear power plant to turn on the lights.

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— Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems chairman

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Well before the middle of this century, humans will be shoved out of the driver’s seat and robotic chauffeurs will take over.

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— Paul Saffo, Technology forecaster

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TV is no longer just TV. TV is interactive these days. You will use the same TV and the same remote control but have completely different functionality.

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— Jong Woo Park, President of Samsung's digital media business

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Audiences are getting used to participating in their entertainment experience, and we wanted that participation to be on two levels: physical, by clicking the remote, and also cognitive, where audiences are trying to figure out what's happening in front of them.

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— Ana Serrano, Producer of Late Fragment, an upcoming interactive film

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The fact that we can access knowledge and automate some of the more mechanical aspects of thinking allows us to think more creatively.

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— Ray Kurzweil, Inventor and futurist

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Government has not embraced generically the tools that we all use every day. They have not embraced blogs, video, all the information sources -- it's time.

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— Eric Schmidt, Google CEO

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At some point, we're going to have direct neural connections, where you plug the [game] into your brain, and the first people who do that are going to be seen as social outcasts.

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— Will Wright, Creator of The Sims and Spore

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There's a new generation of entrepreneurs in the Valley who have arrived since 2000, after the dot-com bust. They're completely fearless.

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— Marc Andreessen, Founder of Netscape

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People are starting companies at young ages. They fail fast, learn a lot, and keep going.

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— David Cohen, Executive director of TechStars tech incubator

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Scientists make discoveries. Designers make these discoveries understandable and usable.

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— Paola Antonelli, Design curator, New York's Museum of Modern Art

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If you do anything for the money, you end up selling out. Do what you love, what you can't not do, and the money will follow.

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— Matt Mullenweg, Founder of WordPress and Automatic

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Users do not care about what is inside the box, as long as the box does what they need done.

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— Jeff Raskin, Human-computer interface expert and Mac pioneer

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We live in a world whose traumas and triumphs are visible instantaneously.

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— Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems CEO

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A world in which humans communicate with household objects -- partly to better the environment -- is closer than you think.

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— Drew Lanza, Tech venture capitalist

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I think we're all very horrified by the idea of identity theft more so than someone stealing our car...because we want to distinguish ourselves, not be anonymous like the other 6.2 billion people in the world.

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— T.C. Boyle, Author

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If we bring universal access to all human knowledge, it will be remembered as one of the great things humankind has ever done.

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— Brewster Kahle, Tech entrepreneur and digital archiving pioneer

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When your currency is ideas, people become emotionally attached.

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— Gina Bianchini, CEO and co-founder of Ning

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In 10 years, I can easily see someone putting 75 percent of their day online.

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— Mena Trott, President and co-founder of SixApart

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It's a great time to launch a high-quality startup and a terrible time to launch a low-quality startup -- but then, that's always true.

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— Marc Andreessen, Founder of Netscape

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Information systems create a new social etiquette that breaks down old barriers.

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— Edgar Cahn , Author of No More Throw Away People: The Co-Production Imperative

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When starting a startup was expensive, you had to get the permission of investors to do it. Now the only threshold is courage.

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— Paul Graham, Essayist and programmer

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We as a species are not in control of the Internet. We are not in control of the growth of new media.

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— Susan Blackmore, British Scholar

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Talking computers will replace written language by 2050.

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— Dr. William Crossman, Director of the Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures

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There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can’t access on their cell phone.

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— Andy Rubin, Guru for Google's Android

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Anything worth doing is worth obsessing over.

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— Joshua Schachter, Creator of del.icio.us

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I’m interested in understanding how the brain works and then building machines that work on the same principle.

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— Jeff Hawkins, Inventor of the PalmPilot

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Technology happens. It’s not good, it’s not bad. Is steel good or bad?

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— Andrew Grove, Intel founder

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At the end of the day, it’s not about your technology. It’s about your relationship with your technology.

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— Caleb Chung, Co-inventor of the Furby and co-founder of Ugobe

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Information on the Internet is subject to the same rules and regulations as conversation at a bar.

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— George Lundberg, M.D., Pioneer of medical resources on the Internet

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Each of us, thoroughly hyperconnected, brings the eyes and ears of all of humanity with us, wherever we go.

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— Mark Pesce, Virtual reality pioneer

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When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.

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— Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO

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Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.

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— Burt Rutan, Legendary spacecraft designer

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Letting users control your site can be terrifying at first. You have no idea what the system will produce.

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— Kevin Rose, Digg founder

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The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.

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— Jon Stewart, Host of The Daily Show

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Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.

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— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur

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Encryption…is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running the government.

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— Esther Dyson, Tech commentator

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Technology is like a fish: The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes.

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— Andrew Heller, Entrepreneur and founder ClearCube Technology

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We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.

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— Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder and board chair

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Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

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— Albert Einstein, Physicist known for his theory of relativity

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Computing is not about computers anymore. It’s about living.

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— Nicholas Negroponte, Founder of One Laptop Per Child

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What should exist? To me, that’s the most exciting question imaginable. What do we need that we don’t have? How can we realize our potential?

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— Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder

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The next Net will emerge as an intuitive, easy to use, anticipatory extension of personal and business life.

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— James Canton, CEO and chairman of the Institute for Global Futures

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