Mark Walport Quotes

There's no question that as science, knowledge and technology advance, that we will attempt to do more significant things. And there's no question that we will always have to temper those things with ethics.

Whatever science fiction movies we watch now, we can make the technology real in two days. What we can do is not important. What we should do is more important.

What did you do to change the world today?

We talk a lot about building benevolent technology. Our technology reflects our values.

Before we choose our tools and technology, we must choose our dreams and values, for some technologies serve them, while others make them more unobtainable.

What is innovation if not our ticket to every business interest in the world? It's the ticket to solving the world's problems - the energy problems, the pollution problems, the global warming problems. If it isn't for science and engineering, how will we compete in the new world?

Actually, that issue of 'Don't be evil' is probably the number one reason we throw out ideas.

If the government regulates against use of drones or stem cells or artificial intelligence, all that means is that the work and the research leave the borders of that country and go someplace else.

We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.

We discuss the potential drawbacks of genetic testing or genetic modification of crops. We do not discuss the suffering and environmental damage that will be caused by holding back innovation…. The debate is unbalanced here because it is complacent about the imperfect present.

We cannot idealize technology. Technology is only and always the reflection of our own imagination, and its uses must be conditioned by our own values.

The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them to the service of man ... To make contribution of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality

Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm tossed human vessel.

Science can tell us what can be done in principle, but it is then a matter for public debate as to what should be done. And ultimately, it is a role for politicians to decide the answers.

Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

There's nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.

They are focused on whether they can do something. They never think whether they should do something.

Jean-Paul Sartre, the existentialist philosopher who celebrated the anguish of decision as a hallmark of responsibility, has no place in Silicon Valley.

The act of willing this or that, of choosing among various courses of conduct, is central in the realm of ethics.

Freedom has invented every useful machine, from the lowest to the highest, from the simplest to the most complex.

For the future, primarily, we must educate people in science, engineering, technology and math.

Science is a tool, and we invent tools to do things we want. It's a question of how those tools are used by people.

Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.

Only when the voice of duty is silent, or when it has already spoken, may we allowably think of the consequences of a particular action.