Nexus Quotes

“To understand the future course of this war, one need only look at the history of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. Like those two manufactured "wars", this one will be never-ending, freedom-destroying, counterproductive, and ultimately understood to have caused far more damage than the supposed threat it was aimed at ever could have.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“We’re all born dying, someone had said. What matters is only how we spend the instant we’re given.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“We think of ourselves as individuals, but all that we have accomplished, and all that we will accomplish, is the result of groups of humans cooperating. Those groups are organisms in their own rights.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Buddhism suits me 'cuz nobody's in charge. Nobody's decidin' for me if I'm good or bad, goin' to heaven or hell. It's just me workin' on my head, you workin' your head, the friggin' Dalai Lama workin' on his head.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss stares also into you.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“To understand a thing is to gain the power to change it. ”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“I think it's all that's holding me together," Kade said. "Then perhaps you should fall apart," Ananda replied.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Every attempt through history to limit the definition of humanity has been a prelude to the subjugation, degradation, and slaughter of innocents.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss stares also into you.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“It did something to the temporal lobe, one of the circuits involved in religious experience. It was supposed to put people closer to God. It did that. It also made them slaves.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Those who would sacrifice essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Like Einstein, Kade thought. The problems we currently face can’t be solved at the level of thinking that created them.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“We must all act within the choices we are given.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“We think of ourselves as individuals, but all that we have accomplished, and all that we will accomplish, is the result of groups of humans cooperating. Those groups are organisms in their own rights. We are their components.” He’s”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“In seeking to uncover the causes of an event, ask yourself: who stands to benefit from it?”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Do you know the bodhisattva vow?” Ananda asked. Kade shook his head. “It’s from the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism,” Ananda said, “different than my own, but still beautiful. The most basic expression of it is ‘May I attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.’ It’s a pledge to keep being reborn into the material world of suffering, to put nirvana off indefinitely, until all beings in the universe have attained enlightenment and can also enter nirvana. It’s perhaps the ultimate vow of placing others before oneself.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“What I mean is that we all exists as parts of groups and collectives larger than ourselves. Tribes. Communities. Organizations. Institutions. Families. Nations. We think of ourselves as individuals, but all that we have accomplished, and all that we will accomplish, is the result of groups of humans cooperating. Those groups are organisms in their own rights. We are their components.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Power is best when it’s distributed most broadly.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“The qi of the world. The life force of the planet was data.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“She opened to her higher self. The light and power of her massive intellect coursed through her.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“The worst atrocities… Maybe half of them arose directly because the powerful had a monopoly or a near-monopoly on some key capability.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Humans create so much beauty.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Everything important in our world requires the efforts of large numbers of individuals. Indeed, to overcome our planet’s most pressing problems, we are required to think not as individuals, not even as nations, but as a single humanity.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“it can be tempting to hoard knowledge, to use it as a way to gain advantage over others. But if we seek to serve our fellow man, we must spread the things we learn as far and wide as possible. To empower the downtrodden, we must put knowledge in their hands.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Power is best when it’s distributed most broadly. That’s what democracy means. That’s what freedom means. The right to determine your individual destiny belongs in your hands, and no one else’s.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“Broad dissemination and individual choice turn most technologies into a plus. If only the elites have access, it’s a dystopia.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“All that matters is what we do with the instant we are given.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“When the chips are down, when you have to weigh what you believe in against your own safety – that’s when you find out what you’re made of.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“The problems we currently face can’t be solved at the level of thinking that created them.”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus

“The evolution of language marked a great leap forward for our species. It boosted our cognitive abilities by webbing us together into larger, more powerful group minds. I believe that another quantum step in human cognition awaits us on the other side of direct linkage of our brains and minds to one another." - Somdet Phra Ananda”
― Ramez Naam, Nexus