If we can put a man on the moon and sequence the human genome, we should be able to devise something close to a universal digital public library.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the feasibility of creating a universal digital library, given our technological advancements.
Peter Singer highlights that with the incredible achievements in technology, such as space exploration and genetic sequencing, it is entirely reasonable to expect the creation of a universal digital library. This library would democratize access to knowledge, reflecting our capability to harness technological innovation for the public good.
In practice
In a speech about the future of education, I could use this quote to advocate for the creation of accessible online resources.
The belief that the animals exist because God created them - and that he created them so we can better meet our needs - is contrary to our scientific understanding of evolution and, of course, to the fossil record, which shows the existence of non-human primates and other animals millions of years before there were any human beings at all.
Pain and suffering are in themselves bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers. How bad a pain is depends on how intense it is and how long it lasts, but pain of the same intensity and duration are equally bad, whether felt by humans or animals.
What is faith? If you believe something because you have evidence for it, or rational argument, that is not faith. So faith seems to be believing something despite the absence of evidence or rational argument for it.
Almost everybody accepts that some people can be killed. 'The concept of 'brain death' - the belief that people on respirators can legitimately be killed - shows that.
If we all think only of our own interests, we are headed for collective disaster - just look at what we are doing to our planet's climate.
Even in the era of AIDS, sex raises no unique moral issues at all. Decisions about sex may involve considerations about honesty, concern for others, prudence, and so on, but there is nothing special about sex in this respect, for the same could be said of decisions about driving a car. (In fact, the moral issues raised by driving a car, both from an environmental and from a safety point of view, are much more serious than those raised by sex.)
There are big lines between those who play video games and those who do not. For those who don't, video games are irrelevant. They think all video games must be too difficult.
I can't blame modern technology for my predilection for distraction, not after all the hours I've spent watching lost balloons disappear into the clouds. I did it before the Internet, and I'll do it after the apocalypse, assuming we still have helium and weak-gripped children.
Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.
The study of thinking machines teaches us more about the brain than we can learn by introspective methods. Western man is externalizing himself in the form of gadgets.
Languages evolve; ideas blend together. In computer technology, we all stand on others' shoulders.
Before social media, if I, as an individual wanted to publish something to the world, unless I could get some local TV crew to interview me, or I wrote an op-ed or took out an ad, I had no voice.
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