On the molecular scale, you find it's reasonable to have a machine that does a million steps per second, a mechanical system that works at computer speeds.
In thinking about nanotechnology today, what's most important is understanding where it leads, what nanotechnology will look like after we reach the assembler breakthrough.
Likewise nanotechnology will, once it gets under way, depend on the tools we have then and our ability to use them, and not on the steps that got us there.
Even small cults are a serious cost on the world economy, to victims, their families, employers, friends, and credit-card companies.
The information that is passed from person to person and from generation to generation is the primary factor that gives humans a competitive advantage over other animals.
Anyone who has ever had the feeling of being higher than a kite after giving a public speech is well aware of the effects of attention.
People enjoy the interaction on the Internet, and the feeling of belonging to a group that does something interesting: that's how some software projects are born.
Before the commercial ventures, Linux tended to be rather hard to set up, because most of the developers were motivated mainly by their own interests.
I'm perfectly happy complaining, because it's cathartic, and I'm perfectly happy arguing with people on the Internet because arguing is my favourite pastime - not programming.
I get the biggest enjoyment from the random and unexpected places. Linux on cellphones or refrigerators, just because it's so not what I envisioned it. Or on supercomputers.
I try to avoid long-range plans and visions - that way I can more easily deal with anything new that comes up.
Finnish companies tend to be very traditional, not taking many risks. Silicon Valley is completely different: people here really live on the edge.
I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things.
In many cases, the user interface to a program is the most important part for a commercial company: whether the programs works correctly or not seems to be secondary.
To be a nemesis, you have to actively try to destroy something, don't you? Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.
An individual developer like me cares about writing the new code and making it as interesting and efficient as possible. But very few people want to do the testing.
Somebody out there is going to do something that's far more surprising than anything that I would do. I was surprised by the whole web thing in the first place.
Younger hackers are hard to classify. They're probably just as diverse as the old hackers are. We're all over the map.
When I was a bit older I had all of the George Carlin records, all of the Steve Martin records, all of the Cheech and Chong records and all of the Richard Pryor records.
I've been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have.
I'm not a politician. I only want to help relieve the suffering in communities, and I want to help people see their community in each other.
