Geoff Mulgan Quotes

What seems impossible today, may half a century hence have become commonplace.

We stand today at the edge of a new frontier—the frontier of the 1960's.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

If humanity is being swallowed by a modern primitivism, imagination might be the thing that saves us all.

The '50s was a pretty wonderful time for people, it was hopeful.

Don't underestimate the power of your vision to change the world. Whether that world is your office, your community, an industry or a global movement, you need to have a core belief that what you contribute can fundamentally change the paradigm or way of thinking about problems.

Tech innovation is something societies have to pursue as vigorously as they can. We have to innovate civically and socially at the same rate; otherwise, you create unfortunate disruptions, and that's where you have people opposing technological innovations.

Mass prosperity came with the mass innovation that sprung up in 1815 in Britain, soon after in America, and later in Germany and France: It brought sustained growth to these nations - also to nations with entrepreneurs willing and able to copy the innovations.

When you look at the actual data on technological innovation, one thing you see is that what I call the 'low-hanging fruit' has been exhausted. So radio, flush toilets, electricity, and automobiles - a lot of very basic inventions - have spread to almost all households.

If everything moves along and there are no major catastrophes we're basically headed towards holograms.

Societies advance through innovation every bit as much as economies do.

I actually think the one who is underestimated in terms of impact he's had on society is Bill Gates. The reason is that with the innovation of software, he really allowed the computer revolution to take hold.

The United States as we know it today is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad.

If you do an interview in 1960, something it's bound to change by the year 2000. And if it doesn't, then there's something drastically wrong.

Innovation is the running theme and spirit of the policies adopted by the Chinese government, and it is the banner that we will always hold high.

For most of human civilization, the pace of innovation has been so slow that a generation might pass before a discovery would influence your life, culture or the conduct of nations.

Two-thirds of all growth takes place in cities because, by simple fact of population density, our urban spaces are perfect innovation labs. The modern metropolis is jam-packed. People are living atop one another; their ideas are as well.

Let's face it: innovation in the U.S. is now the province of our thriving city-states. We all know that nothing happens in Washington anymore.

Prosperity in human society is misunderstood. The difference between a rich and poor society is the number of problems that society solves for its citizens. That means technological innovation is the source of all prosperity, but with every tech innovation, you also get disruption - ultimately, social and civic disruption.

As the generalization goes about the art industry, people can be really challenging and thought-provoking in their thinking and questioning the status quo, and it's really important that the status quo can be questioned and that there are people doing that.

The history of economic growth is the history of people making more with less and shifting into new jobs that were unheard of in the previous generation.

Machines and their development provide the greatest opportunity in the whole history of mankind to improve the lot of the individual human being.

Call me an optimist, but in the past 300 years we have built amazing technologies which - by and large - have advanced humanity.

We will pay a heavy price if we insist on navigating the 21st century with a 20th century mindset.

Innovation and commerce are as powerful tools for creating social progress as they are for driving technological advancement.