More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries. —Nikola Tesla
Einstein had famously declared: Coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous.
The role of a golem is to bear the burden of a weaker soul.
Finch was not surprised when his letter of appointment read: It is impossible to overstate the importance of Threshold. It warrants whatever extraordinary measures you deem necessary to ensure its success. Message received, Finch thought. There are no rules.
The materialists believed that all phenomena, including consciousness, could be explained solely in terms of physical matter and its interactions. According to materialists, consciousness was a by-product of physical processes—the activity of neural networks along with other chemical processes within the brain. For noeticists, however, the picture was infinitely less confined. Noeticists believed that consciousness was not created by brain processes, but rather was a fundamental aspect of the universe—akin to space, time, or energy—and was not even located inside the body.
Social media, Dana thought. The biggest intelligence boon since the Catholic Church invented confession.
“The point is, nobody likes change,” she continued. “And stodgy academics have a tendency to cling to the comfort of their existing beliefs long after their models are clearly obsolete.
“The Vel spear is a Hindu symbol of power. The point of the spear represents enlightenment, a sharply tuned mind, the superior insight used to cut through the darkness of ignorance and conquer your enemies. The Hindu god of war, Murugan, carried the spear with him everywhere.”
“Sorry about my partner,” the man said. “Auger can be a bit…intense.” “The appropriate literary term is ‘douchebag,’ ” Faukman replied.
“Memento mori,” Langdon said. “Remember death is coming…and live well.”
“And the same holds true for many people with Asperger’s or autism,” she added. “They can have highly specialized receivers that provide them access to remarkable skills and insights, and yet simultaneously make it difficult to perform routine tasks. It’s a bit like wearing binoculars instead of eyeglasses; you could see much farther than most…and yet your immediate surroundings would be blurry.”
There are only two paths…Truth or Death.
The brain is an incredibly delicate mechanism, and trying to alter it with hallucinogens is like trying to adjust a priceless Rolex wristwatch with a sledgehammer!
“The ultimate test of a man’s conscience is his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”
she saw fresh faces materialize in the wall before her. She had learned that only a fraction of the faces she saw were actually there, intended by the architect. The others, as it turned out, were faces she was hallucinating—a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia. The brain had a natural inclination to conjure meaningful shapes out of nebulous contours, and humans saw faces in everything—from clouds to fabric patterns to bowls of soup to shadows on a lake.
Far too many fear death and regard it as the worst disaster that can befall them: they know nothing of what they speak. Death comes as a dissolution from an exhausted body…Just as the body leaves the mother’s womb when it is mature in it, so also does the soul leave the body when it has come to perfection.
Terror management theory was utilized by military intelligence to predict a population’s reaction to certain threats. Its findings were well established. Human anxiety had countless sources—fear of nuclear war, terrorism, financial ruin, loneliness—and yet TMT had established that the predominant fear and strongest motivator behind human behavior was, undeniably…the fear of death. When a person was terrified that he or she might die, the brain employed extremely well-defined strategies to “manage” that terror.
“Fear makes us selfish,” Katherine said. “The more we fear death, the more we cling to ourselves, our belongings, our safe spaces…to that which is familiar. We exhibit increased nationalism, racism, and religious intolerance. We flout authority, ignore social mores, steal from others to provide for ourselves, and become more materialistic. We even abandon our feelings of environmental responsibility because we sense the planet is a lost cause and we’re all doomed anyway.”
