The Science of Discworld (Science of Discworld, #1)

by Terry Pratchett

What runs Discworld is deeper than mere magic and more powerful than pallid science. It is narrative imperative, the power of story.

Sometimes scientists change their minds. New developments cause a rethink. If this bothers you, consider how much damage is being done to the world by people for whom new developments do not cause a rethink.

scientific progress … forwards or backwards. (You will find both.)

Wizards can put up with any amount of deprivation and discomfort, provided it is not happening to them.

There are creatures which have evolved to live in coral reefs and simply could not survive in the rough, tooth-filled wastes of the open sea. They continue to exist by lurking among the dangerous tentacles of the sea anemone or around the lips of the giant clam and other perilous crevices shunned by all sensible fish. A university is very much like a coral reef. It provides calm waters and food particles for delicate yet marvellously constructed organisms that could not possibly survive in the pounding surf of reality, where people ask questions like ‘Is what you do of any use?’ and other nonsense.

The module for sensing bodily movement has, in part, turned into one for doing certain kinds of mathematics – those parts of mechanics where a physical ‘feel’ for the problem may well be precisely that. Our culture has rebuilt our minds, and our minds have in turn rebuilt our culture, over and over again, in each generation.