The Shoulders of Geniuses

Some thought for food:

The problem with the scientific power you've used is it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge yourselves, so you don't take the responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you knew what you had, you patented it, packaged it, slapped in on a plastic lunch box, and now you want to sell it.

- Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park,

screenplay by David Koepp

Every time you do something for the first time in your life, you're going to do a better job than other people who have done it before. You're aware of the most modern components. I was aware of the best chips that existed and used them for jobs for which they weren't intended.

- Steve Wozniak, Apple inventor,

interview with Hardy Green

of BusinessWeek

If others had not been foolish, we should be so.

- William Blake, The Marriage of

Heaven and Hell

There's this great concept called "time-binding". It's "the distinctive human ability to build on the accumulated knowledge of others" according to Alfred Korzybski originator of the term (and the concept, as far as I know.) I am very thankful to live in an age when I have the wealth of human knowledge at my fingertips. It helps make The Felties more than just a pipe-dream. The internet is truly a miracle.

God bless you, Al Gore.