More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Five hundred dollars at an electronics store, Langdon knew, being one of several Harvard professors who now used portable cell-jamming technology to render their lecture halls “dead zones” and keep students off their devices during class.
“For the human brain,” Edmond explained, “any answer is better than no answer. We feel enormous discomfort when faced with ‘insufficient data,’ and so our brains invent the data—offering us, at the very least, the illusion of order—creating myriad philosophies, mythologies, and religions to reassure us that there is indeed an order and structure to the unseen world.”
The Széchenyi Chain Bridge—one of eight bridges in Budapest—spans more than a thousand feet across the Danube. An emblem of the link between East and West, the bridge is considered one of the most beautiful in the world.
2001: A Space Odyssey, which, according to urban legend, had been named HAL because each letter occurred alphabetically one letter ahead of IBM.
DON’T LET THEM MAKE A MONKEY OUT OF YOU! FIGHT DARWIN!
SKIP CHURCH. YOU’RE TOO OLD FOR FAIRY TALES.
RELIGION: BECAUSE THINKIN...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
TO ALL OF OUR ATHEIST FRIENDS: THANK GOD...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
IN THE BEGINNING, MAN CREATED GOD.
The laws of physics alone can create life.
If the laws of physics are so powerful that they can create life…who created the laws?!
“ ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’ ”
“A pattern is any distinctly organized sequence. Patterns occur everywhere in nature—the spiraling seeds of a sunflower, the hexagonal cells of a honeycomb, the circular ripples on a pond when a fish jumps, et cetera.”
“Codes are special,” Langdon said, his tone rising. “Codes, by definition, must carry information. They must do more than simply form a pattern—codes must transmit data and convey meaning. Examples of codes include written language, musical notation, mathematical equations, computer language, and even simple symbols like the crucifix. All of these examples can transmit meaning or information in a way that spiraling sunflowers cannot.”
“The other difference between codes and patterns,” Langdon continued, “is that codes do not occur naturally in the world. Musical notation does not sprout from trees, and symbols do not draw themselves in the sand. Codes are the deliberate inventions of intelligent consciousnesses.”
“Sometimes, all you have to do is shift your perspective to see someone else’s truth.”
