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The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions. It often proved fatal.

David Brin

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David Brin
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: October 6
Astronomer
Astrophysicist
Novelist
Physicist
Science Fiction Writer
Scientist
Screenwriter
Writer
Glendale
California
USA
Glen David Brin
Encounter
Firsts
Mistake
Unfortunate
First
Worst
Made
Sides
Encounters
Every
Literature
Assumption
Making
Throughout
Assumptions
Individual
Contact
Fatal
History
Individuals
Proved
Often
Habit

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The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
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Anyone who wants simple, pat stories should buy another author's product. The real universe ain't that way, and neither are my fictive ones.
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Why must conversions always come so late? Why do people always apologize to corpses?
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Change is the very fabric of our time.
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All this talk of using tax policy to 'assess social costs'...what a dumb idea. The only way to stop polluters is to put them against walls and shoot them.
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Only people with full stomachs become environmentalists.
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The fundamental premise of sci-fi is not spaceships and lasers - it's that children can learn from the mistakes of their parents.
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The best time to act on this was decades ago. The second best time is now.
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I regret having been the bearer of ambiguous tidings.
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In historical fact, all of history's despots, combined, never managed to get things done as well as this rambunctious, self-critical civilization of free and sovereign citizens, who have finally broken free of worshipping a ruling class and begun thinking for themselves. Democracy can seem frustrating and messy at times, but it delivers.
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You don't have conversations with microprocessors. You tell them what to do, then helplessly watch the disaster when they take you literally!
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The village is coming back, like it or not.
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I find humans tremendously interesting
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My education and background thoroughly inform my writing
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In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march.
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What point was there in pursuing an ever-elusive popularity?
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My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea.
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Life is not fair... Anyone who says it is, or even that it ought to be, is a fool or worse.
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Reciprocal accountability, or criticism [is] the only known antidote to error.
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