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August 5, 2022 - January 14, 2023
May you be happy in a far better century than mine
when they looked out across the deeps of space, they felt awe, and wonder—and loneliness. As soon as they possessed the power, they began to seek for fellowship among the stars.
They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night.
And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.
“I should be grateful I’m not a thousand-and-oner, dropped into 2001. That would be too much of a quantum jump: I don’t believe anyone could adjust to it. At least I know about electricity, and won’t die of fright if a picture starts talking at me.”
Someone once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
George Orwell had been right; some would always be more equal than others.
The trouble with clichés, some philosopher remarked, probably with a yawn, is that they are so boringly true. But “love at first sight” is never boring.
I believe I’ve passed another test, he told himself smugly. Riding on Draco must have been the first. How many more, I wonder? Fighting with broadswords? But there were no more, and the answer to the immemorial “Your place or mine?” was—Poole’s.
‘Politics is the art of the possible’?” “Quite true—which is why only second-rate minds go into it. Genius likes to challenge the impossible.”
Lucretius hit it on the nail when he said that religion was the by-product of fear—a reaction to a mysterious and often hostile universe. For much of human prehistory, it may have been a necessary evil—but why was it so much more evil than necessary—and why did it survive when it was no longer necessary?
that most of humanity has always been insane, at least some of the time.”
There’s never been anything, however absurd, that myriads of people weren’t prepared to believe, often so passionately that they’d fight to the death rather than abandon their illusions. To me, that’s a good operational definition of insanity.”
given the same engineering problems, evolution must produce very similar answers.
“Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence.”
“IN WILDNESS IS THE PRESERVATION OF THE WORLD.”
excessive interest in pathological behavior was itself pathological.
It was generally agreed that Communism was the most perfect form of government; unfortunately, it had been demonstrated—at the cost of some hundreds of millions of lives—that it was only applicable to social insects,
For imperfect human beings, the least-worse answer was Democracy, frequently defined as “Individual greed, moderated by an efficient but not too zealous government.”
“Braincap or Braincop?”
Whatever godlike powers and principalities lurked beyond the stars, Poole reminded himself, for ordinary humans only two things were important: Love and Death.
“Their little universe is very young, and its god is still a child. But it is too soon to judge them; when We return in the Last Days, We will consider what should be saved.”
“Never explain, never apologize” may be excellent advice for politicians, Hollywood moguls, and business tycoons, but an author should treat his readers with more consideration.
“It’s fiction, stupid!”
Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.
