If you're going to immerse yourself in a project for three years, why not stake out a chunk of the world that is completely alien to you and go traveling?
Richard PowersRead
We build our technologies as a way of addressing all our anxieties and desires. They are our passions congealed into these prosthetic extensions of ourselves. And they do it in a way that reflects what we dream ourselves capable of doing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our technologies are expressions of our desires and anxieties, reflecting our dreams and capabilities.
In this quote, Richard Powers suggests that the technologies we create are more than just tools; they embody our innate desires and fears. They serve as extensions of our identities, merging our passions with our aspirations, and ultimately allow us to manifest our dreams in a tangible form. This reflection reveals how deeply intertwined our personal and collective psyche is with the innovations we pursue.
Themes
TechnologyDesiresAnxietiesIdentityPassions
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation at a tech conference.
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All quotes →This idea that a book can either be about character and feeling, or about politics and idea, is just a false binary. Ideas are an expression of the feelings and the intense emotions we hold about the world.
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The desire to live in our imagination is driven by this suspicion that we're disembodied sensibilities cobbled into our bodies. That idea has infused most of human thought since the very beginning.
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I really like science because it seems to be that place where you get the big picture, everything connects.
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What we can do should never by itself determine what we choose to do, yet this is the way technology tends to work.
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I write the way you might arrange flowers. Not every try works, but each one launches another. Every constraint, even dullness, frees up a new design.
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