Kevin Kelly's list of found quotes

Kevin Kelly has been compling a list of quotes he's found online. Kevin and I have the same sense of humor and reaction to certain kinds of ideas, so I found these fascinating. Here are a few:

"Most of them seemed to be Twittering the conference as they went, and following each other's Twitter feeds. Surreal moment: At one point, the guy sitting closest to me was reading a blog post containing a photo of the guy sitting immediately behind him." -- Owen Thomas

"As you make a prototype, assume you are right and everyone else is wrong. When you share your prototype, assume you are wrong and everyone else is right." - Diego Rodriguez

"The World Wide Web was precisely what we were trying to PREVENT-- ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management." – Ted Nelson

"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg

"This is my long-run forecast in brief: The material conditions of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries, most of the time, indefinitely. Within a century or two, all nations and most of humanity will be at or above today's Western living standards. I also speculate, however, that many people will continue to think and say that the conditions of life are getting worse." -- Julian Simon

[#1 posted by Stefan Jones, April 13, 2009 3:45 PM]

I love Lore Sjoberg's quote.

But it occurs to me that a civilization of sapient wolves would wonder what the joke is.

Reading that last sentence, I realize that I've consumed far too much leftover Easter candy today.

[#2 posted by GuidoDavid, April 13, 2009 3:54 PM]

Well, there' are plenty of people interested in watersports...

[#3 posted by Anonymous, April 13, 2009 4:57 PM]

I think you guys would seriously dig these interviews between Kevin Kelly and Ken Wilber.

Kevin Kelly and Ken Wilber - Exploring the Technium
http://integrallife.com/node/12176

Part 1: Technology, Evolution, and God
Part 2: Spiritual Machines
Part 3: The Great Google in the Sky
Part 4: The Nine Laws of God

It's a subscription-based site, but the whole interview can be streamed/downloaded for free.

[#4 posted by devophill, April 13, 2009 5:37 PM]

Well, Ted, maybe it's a good thing that Xanadu didn't get off the ground, then.

[#5 posted by Anthem, April 13, 2009 5:41 PM]

Those who find the Julian Simon quote interesting (or outrageous) should read the introduction to his book "The State of Humanity." It's a point-by-point refutation of a government report (The Global 2000 Report to the President), and overall the book is far more convincing than I expected it to be.

Bjorn Lumborg was so incensed by the book that he spent 3 years and bunches of grad students trying to refute it, only to become convinced that it was actually correct.

It's really fascinating.

[#6 posted by Anonymous, April 13, 2009 6:23 PM]

I think Ted Nelson is showing a little bit of sour grapes. Admittedly these things are problems, but it would be difficult to imagine life without the web.

Neil Raden
Hired Brains

[#7 posted by Mark Temporis, April 13, 2009 6:49 PM]

The last two traits in Ted Nelson's quote seem like features, not bugs.

[#8 posted by DWittSF, April 13, 2009 8:00 PM]

Well, this one is interesting, considering Charles' recent encounter here at BB:

"If only I could figure out a way to make money by holding fashionable opinions decades prematurely." -- Charles Platt

[#9 posted by BastardNamban, April 14, 2009 2:31 AM]

The quote about prototyping is dead-on. You have to have a sizable ego to try something everyone else says will not work, make it work, and then solicit advice from others to find flaws when you show them it works.

I ran into this situation just a few days ago.