Present and Happy to be here Can there be anyone more present and happy to be here than Stephen Hawking in zero g? And can there be any greater poetry than Stephen Hawking slipping the surly bonds of gravity, when Hawking himself for 20 years held the same professorship once held by none other than…
Category Archives: Philosophy
The Light Within
The word “namaste” roughly translates to “the light within me honors the light within you.” Beautiful, right? A really awesome way to view the world and everyone in it. But what is this light within? Can we find it? Can we become the light within? There are voices in your head, incessantly chattering at you…
Hey thanks
The happiest people on earth have remarkably few things in common. One of them, however, is gratitude. If you want to be happier, try being more thankful. Your life is an amazing miracle, which, truth be told, you did absolutely nothing to deserve. It’s a gift, a daily birthday present, a sumptuous banquet set before…
You Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission
If you are considering entrepreneurship, nobody is going to come along and suggest to you that it might be a good idea. Certainly, nobody is going to give you permission. If you are married, your spouse is unlikely to say, “Hey, I know what you should do today. You should quit your full time job,…
Intellectual Property is the Ownability of your Own Ability
Excerpt from chapter 1 of Ownability – How Intellectual Property Works now available for pre-order at a 20% discount. Intellectual property is everywhere. You can hardly exist in the modern world, let alone on the internet, without accessing or using someone’s intellectual property. The rules of intellectual property help you turn ideas into money, which,…
Playful Detachment
Is this seat saved? So I’m sitting in a movie theater and this guy comes up to me and says, “Excuse me, is this seat saved?” And I say, “Well if Thomas Aquinas reasoned that even animals have no souls… how can an inanimate object like a chair expect to attain eternal salvation!?” And he…
Is Reality Real?
A dear friend turned me on to this mind-bending post about why we’re all just AI’s running around a virtual world, a Matrix, if you will. Brains in a vat. I alluded to this possibility in my remarks delivered to open the Internet Technology Summit last June. The basic argument goes: if we can create…
Bilski Haiku
Lots of great blow-by-blow analysis out there regarding Monday’s long-awaited U.S. Supreme Court decision on the extent to which software and business methods qualify for patent protection. Here it is as a haiku. Nine, robed black, have kept The path to patents lit, for Software and methods. Be at peace…
Designing for the Future
Remarks delivered to open the Internet Technology Summit, Orlando, 22 June 2010. It is human nature to root for the underdog. Make no mistake, we loves us some winners, but we adores us some winners when they come from behind. May 26, 2010, was a momentous day for come-from-behind winners. For example, on the Fox…