Norman R. Augustine Quotes

The important prediction is not the automobile, but the parking problem; not radio, but the soap opera; not the income tax, but the expense account; not the Bomb, but the nuclear stalemate

It's true that virtually all new technologies do trigger what sociologists would call 'moral panics,' that there are a lot of people who are concerned with the possible political and social consequences, and that this has been true throughout the ages.

I don't think that a Singularity would be visible to those going through one. Even the most disruptive changes are not universally or immediately distributed, and late followers learn from the reactions and dilemmas of those who had initially encountered the disruptive change.

A builder is like a little god - somebody who does things, doesn't just draw things.

Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing.

What I'm trying to do is to at least raise a flag to the blinding light of technology.

To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

Technologies are never neutral, and some are hurtful.

They say that wrestlers are actors, and they couldn't be more wrong. The truth is wrestling and acting could not be more opposite. Wrestling is explosion, and acting is implosion.

As a former competitor, robot combat is near and dear to my heart. I enjoy the mix of creativity and mayhem that are essential to this sport.

Whenever technological advancement is made it can always be used both for good or for bad.

The way we have to measure progress is not, "Is there ever going to be an incident of racism in the country?" It's, "How does the majority of our country respond?"

As Aristotle wrote a long, long time ago, and I'm paraphrasing here, the goal is to avoid mediocrity by being prepared to try something and either failing miserably or triumphing grandly. Mediocrity is not about failing, and it's the opposite of doing. Mediocrity, in other words, is about not trying. The reason is achingly simple, and I know you've heard it a thousand times before: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The worst thing about affirmative action is that it encourages reverse discrimination, so-called because it goes in the opposite way of how we naturally discriminate.

For every action there’s a reaction. And also, for every action there’s an equal and opposite criticism.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You receive from the world what you give to the world.

Most people who sneer at technology would starve to death if the engineering infrastructure were removed.

Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the ebb and flow of water; in male and female; in the equation of quantity and quality; in the fluids of the animal body; in the systole an

Vertical and horizontal lines are the expression of two opposing forces; they exist everywhere and dominate everything; their reciprocal action constitutes 'life'. I recognized that the equilibrium of any particular aspect of nature rests on the equivalence of its opposites.

All technology should be assumed guilty until proven innocent

Ingenious philosophers tell you, perhaps, that the great work of the steam-engine is to create leisure for mankind. Do not believe them; it only creates a vacuum for eager thought to rush in.

Necessity may not be the opposite of freedom, and perhaps a man is most free when, instead of producing motives, he could only say, "I am what I do.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You never know what it’s going to look like on the other side, but you’ll see it eventually if you keep your eyes open.

The question of engineering should be of interest not only to those of us who are engineers, but to the entire public which lives in an engineering world