Explore Welcome. I help others understand, make sense of, and put to good use, rapidly advancing technologies and the mindset necessary to apply them. Scroll to learn more about some of the organizations and initiatives I am associated with. For contact information, a brief biography and photographs, or to connect on social media, please scroll to the end of this page.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." John Quincy Adams
Mission Blue - The Sylvia Earle Alliance - Link
“This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.” John Steinbeck
Project Explorer - Link
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt
Schmidt Family Foundation - Schmidt Marine - Link
“Ocean, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man — who has no gills.” Ambrose Bierce
Cansu International - Link
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Carl Sagan
Marine Conservation Institute - Link
"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." Wernher von Braun
The SETI Institute - Link
"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." Martin Luther King, Jr.
eg - Link
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." The Dalai Lama
TED - Link
"You're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come with it." Margaret Atwood
World Building Institute - Link
"I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it." Maya Angelou
XPrize - Link
"There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met." William Butler Yeats
Made In Space - Link
"Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray." Lord Byron
Aquaai - Link
"Thanks to generations of curious, daring, intrepid explorers of the past, we may know enough, soon enough, to chart safe passage for ourselves far into the future." Sylvia A. Earle
OpenROV - Link
"From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere." Dr. Seuss
National Geographic Open Explorer- Link
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" Abraham Lincoln
OCTO23 Technologies - Link
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." Theodore Roosevelt
Parks & Tech - Link
"The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others." Robert Baden-Powell
Equality Lab - Link
"You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own." Michelle Obama
The Turkana Basin Institute - AfricanFossils.org - - Link
"Son, Observe the Time and Fly from Evil" Extra points for knowing the location of this one.
The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Foundation - Link
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." Henry David Thoreau
Jazz on the Plazz by Los Gatos Music & Arts - Link
"To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity." Douglas Adams
The National Police Foundation - Link
"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin
Zero South - Drive Around the World - Link
"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration. " Ansel Adams
The Royal Geographical Society - Link
"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us." Robert Louis Stevenson
Explorers Institute - Link
"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." Frank Lloyd Wright
The Explorers Club - Link
Explorer - Scientist
In order to realize a preferred future, we must create and foster a positive vision with a mindset of growth and inclusion.
Jonathan explores the dynamics of large-scale, long term change with a focus on beyond the horizon science and technology. A popular and inspirational advisor and speaker, Jonathan provides insight on the intersection of emerging technologies and social trends, and closing the gap between the theory and the practice of innovation in a world of rapidly accelerating technological capabilities. Jonathan currently serves as the Science and Exploration Fellow at Mission Blue—The Sylvia Earle Alliance; Advisor to Schmidt Marine Technology Partners—a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation; Exploration and Ideation Director at the NASA Frontier Development Lab and ESA Frontier Development Lab. He sits on the boards of, and is an advisor to, several ocean, space, technology, learning, design, engineering, and exploration organizations. With 30 years in Silicon Valley leadership positions at Apple, Adobe, and Autodesk, Jonathan is a creative thinker and respected thought leader on future trends, long-range vision, "moonshot" thinking, and creating a preferred future. He advises start-ups, business leaders, government officials, and academics around the world.
Photos
© 2019 Jonathan Knowles
Credits:
Created with images by Chris Lawton - "Map compass camera" • Claudia14 - "dolphin marine mammals water"