A biography for Jamais Casciohasn’t been written yet.
“Fluid intelligence doesn't look much like the capacity to memorise and recite facts, the skills that people have traditionally associated with brainpower.”
“Sustainability is a seemingly laudable goal - it tells us we need to live within our means, whether economic, ecological, or political - but it's insufficient for uncertain times. How can we live within our means when those very means can change, swiftly and unexpectedly, beneath us?”
“Preventing global warming from becoming a planetary catastrophe may take something even more drastic than renewable energy, superefficient urban design, and global carbon taxes.”
“Entrepreneurs need to recognize that, especially in the digital domain, they are unlikely to come up with something that is going to be permanently on top, that impermanence and ephemerality is the nature of the beast.”
“Nobody's going to fix the world for us, but working together, making use of technological innovations and human communities alike, we might just be able to fix it ourselves.”
“Don't expect to be able to upload your cat's brain into your Roomba any time soon.”
“Computer programmers, biotechnologists, environmental scientists, neuroscientists, nanotech engineers - all of these fields, and more, should have at least a course in ethics as part of their degree requirements.”
“As our various electronic devices gain more and more sensory awareness, we open up the potential for entirely new forms of interaction. Not just new interfaces - tapping and shaking and whatnot - but a shift in presence.”
“Simply put, the Internet undermines the ability of an institution to control its own narrative.”
“Foresight turns out to be a critical adaptive strategy for times of great stress.”
“My own suspicion is that a stand-alone artificial mind will be more a tool of narrow utility than something especially apocalyptic.”
“Many of the cognitive enhancement drugs serve to increase focus and concentration. But 'letting your mind wander' is very often an important part of the creative process.”
“Technologists and futurists call the mashup of digital info and physical space 'blended reality.'”
“Geoengineering involves humans making intentional, large-scale modifications to the Earths geophysical systems in order to change the environment.”
“You need to recognize that the copyright date on a book reflects when it came out, not when it was written - assume that the information in the book is at least a year older than the copyright date, and possibly two.”
“When we developed written language, we significantly increased our functional memory and our ability to share insights and knowledge across time and space. The same thing happened with the invention of the printing press, the telegraph, and the radio.”
“Human beings are social animals; we devote a significant portion of our brain just to dealing with interactions with other humans.”
“We've already seen digital picture frames pre-loaded with viruses; I'm not eager to have my refrigerator hacked or my alarm clock turned against me.”
“Everything we think about regarding sustainability - from energy to agriculture to manufacturing to population - has a water footprint. Almost all of the water on Earth is salt water, and the remaining freshwater supplies are split between agricultural use and human use - as well as maintaining the existing natural environment.”
“Nearly every communication method we invent eventually conveys unwanted commercial messages.”