Heaven's River Quotes

“The Iron Rule: Treat others less powerful than you however you like. The Silver Rule: Treat others as you’d like to be treated. The Golden Rule: Treat others as they’d like to be treated.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“the wonderful thing about knowledge is that you can give it away and still have it.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“All actions have risks. Most inactions even more so.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Retired just means I don’t have a job description, and I can work on what I want now.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“If I treat you how I want to be treated, I’m not taking into account your desires.” Theresa made an imploring gesture. “If you are a Unitist and can’t eat land meat, but land meat is my favorite, the Silver Rule says I’m behaving morally by offering you a steak if you’re hungry. But of course you won’t eat it and in fact may be offended. So the Silver Rule is still to a large extent about me and my desires. However, with the Golden Rule, I am obligated to take into account your beliefs and preferences when deciding how best to behave toward you. Does this not produce a better result?”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“What it lacks in elegance, it makes up for with wads of unearned optimism. Let’s do it.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“We'd gotten onto the concept or morality and Frida had just asked Theresa how she could have any sense of morality without a deity to define what was or was not moral.
[...]
"What deities give you aren't rules of morality," Theresa responded. "They are just rules. Do this and you will be rewarded. Do that and you will be punished. That's how we teach our pets not to relieve themselves in the house. One would hope that true morality involved more than learning not to poop on the rug by being rapped on the nose!"
[...]
"In fact", Theresa continued, "I believe that it is only possible to acquire true morality without input from a deity. It is only when you do something because you believe it is the right thing to do, instead of because of any moral desserts, that you are acting morally. Likewise, it is only when you refuse to do something because of the golden rule, rather than because of a threat of punishment, that you are behaving in a moral manner.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Garfield looked sharply at ANEC. “Do you have free will?” “I choose to believe so.” “Do you have a soul?” Howard asked. “I choose to believe so.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Sadly, it was like most political arguments. No one was willing to debate their base assumptions, or justify them, or compromise on them. The simple tactic being that if you repeated your assertion often enough, with enough emotion and volume, the opponents would somehow be forced to see things your way.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“I nodded, impressed. “Jeez, Howard, you’re turning into a real mogul.” Howard grinned. “You know what moguls are, right?” “Uh …” “The buried bodies of forty-something men who took up snowboarding.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Some problems simply do not yield to reductionist techniques, particularly those that are dependent on emergent phenomena.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“That one is approaching puberty. He might’ve been checking out your wife.” “That’s it. He’s sushi.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“I eyed the rafters until I spotted a good location—not big enough to hide something valuable, therefore unlikely to be of interest to a burglar. I placed my hand in front of my face, palm down, and opened my mouth. A one-inch roamer marched out onto the back of my hand. If anyone was watching, that would probably give them nightmares for life.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“There are three rules of behavior,” Theresa replied, now in lecture mode. “The Iron Rule: Treat others less powerful than you however you like. The Silver Rule: Treat others as you’d like to be treated. The Golden Rule: Treat others as they’d like to be treated.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“In fact,” Theresa continued, “I believe that it is only possible to acquire true morality without input from a deity. It is only when you do something because you believe it is the right thing to do, instead of because of any moral desserts, that you are acting morally. Likewise, it is only when you refuse to do something because of the Golden Rule, rather than because of a threat of punishment, that you are behaving in a moral manner.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Subtlety: I no haz it.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“So every mile of topopolis will take us about twelve hours to scan, and then it’s another six hours to examine the scans in detail. That’s over a million years, worst case, just for the scanning.” “Can’t we just build a whole bunch of scanners?” “Yes, but we also have to build a whole bunch of us to process the scans.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“The work-anywhere telecommuting style that had developed in the days after the Mat War had gradually given way to a returning preference for an actual workplace. Seemed people liked being in physical contact with their co-workers, and felt alienated when they were constantly on their own.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“So after all this high-tech spy stuff, we’re going to dig our way out like rats.” “Ya gotta know when to go low-tech, Bob.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Eventually, we’d run into another starfaring species with a technological advantage. That made war—and possibly the extermination of humanity—statistically inevitable.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Thank the universe for convergent physiology, at least he couldn’t yell out a warning.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“FAITH is all about nice, easily packaged black-and-white answers. Even if they’re factually wrong.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Sadly, it was like most political arguments. No one was willing to debate their base assumptions or justify them or compromise on them. The simple tactic being that if you repeated your assertion often enough, with enough emotion and volume, the opponents would somehow be forced to see things your way. Never worked, of course.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“necessary consequence of some of them is that a complex quantum information structure cannot be deleted—and also cannot just evaporate. Laws of thermodynamics do not necessarily apply in quantum-mechanical”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“The others laughed, and we started to settle in. We did Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock for bunks,”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Not mathematically possible,” ANEC replied. “All actions have risks. Most inactions even more so.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Paper clip problem”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“Meanwhile, His Badgerness seemed none the worse for his short career as a football. Stupid badger.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“So I can’t leave the boat, and I can’t stay on the boat.” I frowned. “That does limit my choices.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River

“This is … Locutus.” “Seriously?” Garfield said in an incredulous tone. “Hey, I’d have preferred Hugh, but it appears to be taken,” said Locutus.”
― Dennis E. Taylor, Heaven's River