"Every second of every day, our senses bring in way too much data than we can possibly process in our brains."
"When I think about creating abundance, it's not about creating a life of luxury for everybody on this planet; it's about creating a life of possibility. It is about taking that which was scarce and making it abundant."
"Now the amygdala is our early warning detector, our danger detector. It sorts and scours through all of the information looking for anything in the environment that might harm us. So given a dozen news stories, we will preferentially look at the negative news."
"My childhood dreams were focused on being part of the effort to make humanity a multiplanetary species."
"My father, who grew up picking olives on the Greek island of Lesbos, was a doctor. So my family expected me to become a physician."
"I founded a launch company called International Microspace when I graduated medical school in 1989. We were trying to build a microsatellite launcher."
"In 1980, during my sophomore year at MIT, I realized that the school didn't have a student space organization. I made posters for a group I called Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and put them up all over campus. Thirty-five people showed up. It was the first thing I ever organized, and it took off!"
"Space is an inspirational concept that allows you to dream big."
"I think people are dreaming big because they have the tools to dream big. I hope that people are dreaming big because it makes them feel good about their lives."
"I don't think the space station is innovative. Going to the moon was innovative because we had no idea how to do it."
"Super-ambitious goals tend to be unifying and energizing to people; but only if they believe there's a chance of success."
"Companies have too many experts who block innovation. True innovation really comes from perpendicular thinking."
"Large companies and government agencies have a lot to protect and therefore are not willing to take big risks. A large company taking a risk can threaten its stock price. A government agency taking a risk can threaten congressional investigation."
"True disruption means threatening your existing product line and your past investments. Breakthrough products disrupt current lines of businesses."
"As you may know, I'm the co-founder and co-chairman of an asteroid company called Planetary Resources that is backed by a group of eight billionaires to implement the bold mission of extracting resources from near-Earth asteroids."
"Mining asteroids will ultimately benefit humanity on and off the Earth in a multitude of ways."
"Back in 2007, I had the opportunity to meet Professor Stephen Hawking through the X PRIZE Foundation. In my first conversation with him I learned that he was passionate about flying into space someday."
"If the risk is fully aligned with your purpose and mission, then it's worth considering."
"I get demoralized by organizations that start off with a mission and pull back when they find it's risky."
"Bad news sells because the amygdala is always looking for something to fear."
"So while I can't tell you if bringing a child into this world is the morally-responsible to do, I can say that the future, much like the present, is going to be a whole lot better than you think."
"As lower-cost phones begin to penetrate, they'll become the educator and physician everywhere on the planet."
"Every generation feels it has the problems that will destroy it. That's because we can perceive them a long time before we have the ability to fix them."
"Eight billion people will have Internet access by 2020."
"I have the general philosophy of creating the future you want to see."
