Crux Quotes

“The world has a very serious problem, my friend' Shiva went on. 'Poor children still die by their millions. Westerners and the global rich -- like me -- live in post-scarcity society, while a billion people struggle to get enough to eat. And we're pushing the planet towards a tipping point, where the corals die and the forests burn and life becomes much, much harder. We have the resources to solve those problems, even now, but politics and economics and nationalism all get in the way. If we could access all those minds, though...”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“Do you think that a billion people knowing your face makes you special?
It doesn't.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“But Nita had always seen having a child as selfish. Why bring another soul into this world, she'd say, when there are so many out there that need our help?”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“The past was read-only.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“And Kade understood why. They were a tribal species. They’d evolved in a world where a few dozen men and women made up a tribe, and virtually all others were enemies, threats. They lacked the cognitive capabilities necessary to collaborate on this scale. They’d done their best with democracy, with capitalism, but those had reached their limit long ago. They’d been corrupted, twisted to the interests of a few individuals, when the greatest problems the world faced were problems of collective interest. He”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“Luxuries and indulgences were distractions from true greatness, tawdry and ephemeral baubles that dissipated energy that could be directed toward more meaningful and durable accomplishments in the world around him.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“When had terrorists ever accomplished anything but to enrage people, drive them towards greater security, greater sacrifice of freedom? They only gave their oppressors more excuses for oppression. And the oppressors just drove the oppressed further towards violent rebellion. Extremists on both sides gave power to the very forces they fought against.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“All warfare is based on deception, Sun Tzu had written.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“North Zoe went. And chaos went with her.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“Regardless, in this world, this world where everything was linked, where data ruled all, where cryptographic codes had replaced physical locks on the world’s wealth, on its infrastructure, on its weapons… In this world a being able to process information more rapidly than humans was the ultimate threat.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“The way to find the cause of an event is to understand who had the most to gain from it.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“The meaning of a thing is the impact it has on the world around it, she thought. The meaning of a life is the impact that life has on the world.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“Are you wiser than humanity? Ilya's whispered in his mind, echoing Ananda. Not even you should have that power.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“You could have done this the easy way Jade," Lo Prang told her [Sam]. "I meant what I told you. If you joined my household, you'd be happy." He gestured with his cuffed hands towards his head. "A little tweak here and there. All this stress? All this hardship? I could have taken care of whatever problem you have. And you'd have contentment, the satisfaction of having a purpose in life, of knowing what it was, of having a master who loved you."

Sam stared at Lo Prang and shook her head.

Lo Prang smiled. "Trust me, Jade. I've never had happier staff than I do now. They come to me willingly, for what I can give them, for the satisfaction, the peace and contentment. Even the whores are happy."

Sam shuddered. "There are more important things than happiness," she told the man. "Doing the right thing. Doing what matters".

Lo Prang smiled at her. "The right thing? What matters? Those are just patterns in your brain, Jade. A few tweaks, and your right thing would be mine."

"Not in my lifetime," Sam told him.

Lo Prang shrugged. "You'll change your mind one day. I'll be waiting.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“But, Mr President, if Neanderthals had managed to nip the human problem in the bud, we wouldn't be here." He gestures around him. "There wouldn't be a White House, a United States of America. The world would have less art, less science, less of everything we value, all those inventions of culture that the Neanderthals couldn't have achieved, but that our homo sapiens ancestors could. That's the dilemma, Mr President. If you were a Neanderthal and could stop humans from coming into being, or stop them from getting a foothold, you might extend the life of your species, but leave the world a poorer place."

Stockton [the President] was shaking his head now, not unkindly. "Dr. Holtzmann, that's no dilemma at all. We're here now. My job is to protect the citizens of the United States of America. And there's no way that I'm going to allow a threat to them develop, no matter what wonderful world you think might come later, after we're extinct."

Holtzmann hung his head in defeat.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“When you suffer, Ananda had told him, When you rage. When you weep. When you crave. That is when you must still your mind.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“You’re just a small piece. Death doesn’t matter. The whole lives on.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“The days passed. Sunday turned to Monday turned to Tuesday turned to Wednesday.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“When the CIA is the place you turn to for moral clarity, Nakamura thought, you might have a problem.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“They’d done their best with democracy, with capitalism, but those had reached their limit long ago. They’d been corrupted, twisted to the interests of a few individuals, when the greatest problems the world faced were problems of collective interest.”
― Ramez Naam, Crux