Robot Dreams Quotes

“And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy. But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer--by demonstration--would take care of that, too. For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.
And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
And there was light--”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“And Elvex said, "I was the man." - In "Robot dreams" (Short story)”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“Often, one compensates by playing an instrument, or going hiking, or joining some club. In other words, one creates a new type of society, when not working, in which one can feel more at home.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“Groups, like individuals, will rise to strange heights in answer to a challenge, and vegetate in the absence of a challenge.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“What kind of a ridiculous animal are we to be lords of the world after the dinosaurs had failed? Sure, we’re intelligent, but what’s intelligence? We think it is important because we have it. If the Tyrannosaurus could have picked out the one quality that he thought would ensure species domination, it would be size and strength. And he would make a better case for it. He lasted longer than we’re likely to.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“Yet, if there is the possibility of this satisfaction from accurate prophecy in science fiction, there is also the reverse. Science fiction offers its writers chances of embarrassment that no other form of fiction does. After all, if we may prove accurate in our predictions, we may prove inaccurate as well, sometimes ludicrously so.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“you can’t fight a tremendous, emotion filled drive with cold mathematics. This man Hilder has invented a name, ‘Wasters.’ Slowly he has built this name up into a gigantic conspiracy; a gang of brutal, profit-seeking wretches raping Earth for their own immediate benefit. “He has accused the government of being riddled with them, the Assembly of being dominated by them, the press of being owned by them. None of this, unfortunately, seems ridiculous to the average man. He knows all too well what selfish men can do to Earth’s resources. He knows what happened to Earth’s oil during the Time of Troubles, for instance, and the way topsoil was ruined. “When a fanner experiences a drought, he doesn’t care that the amount of water lost in space flight isn’t a droplet in a fog as far as Earth’s overall water supply is concerned. Hilder has given him something to blame and that’s the strongest possible consolation for disaster. He isn’t going to give that up for a diet of figures.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“Don’t you think my interest can be real, even granted that it is professional, too?” “No, I don’t.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“You seek to trap me into an inconsistency. If you were an amoeba who could consider individuality only in connection with single cells and if you were to ask a sperm whale, made up of thirty quadrillion cells, whether it was one or many, how could the sperm whale answer in a way that would be comprehensible to the amoeba?”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“form. “You adjusted him?” she shrieked. “But it was he who created my light-sculptures. It was the maladjustment, the maladjustment, which you can never restore, that—that—”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“The Voice said, "Even if I knew everything, I could not know that I know everything."
Murray said, "That sounds like a bit of Eastern philosophy - something that sounds profound precisely because it has no meaning.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams