Quote

All evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is.

Vernor Vinge

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Vernor Vinge
Age: 80
Born: 1944
Born: October 2
Computer Scientist
Mathematician
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Waukesha
Wisconsin
Vernor Steffen Vinge
Universe
Villainy
Nature
Twisted
Cannot
Petty
Take
Personally
Good
Admire
Comfort
Simply
Evil

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He was guided by what he saw rather than by what he wanted to believe.
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I have come to kill you.The death's heads shrugged. You have come to try.
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Another symptom of progress toward the Singularity: ideas themselves should spread ever faster, and even the most radical will quickly become commonplace.
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When people speak of creating superhumanly intelligent beings, they are usually imagining an AI project.
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I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.
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Peregrine Wickwrackscar was flying. A pilgrim with legends that went back almost a thousand years-and not one of them could come near to this!
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Politics is good when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.
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I have argued above that we cannot prevent the Singularity, that its coming is an inevitable consequence of the humans natural competitiveness and the possibilities inherent in technology.
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The dilemma felt by science fiction writers will be perceived in other creative endeavors.
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It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing.
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The illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I'll bet you never guess. From the inside, how can you?
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We're endangered by our own success.
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The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.
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And for all my rampant technological optimism, sometimes I think I'd be more comfortable if I were regarding these transcendental events from one thousand years remove... instead of twenty.
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Little fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it.
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But if the technological Singularity can happen, it will.
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Animals can adapt to problems and make inventions, but often no faster than natural selection can do its work - the world acts as its own simulator in the case of natural selection.
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Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.
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Pham Nuwen plunked himself down, stretching indolently.
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The voice was gentle, like a scalpel petting the short hairs of your throat.
Vernor Vinge