The Immortality Code Quotes

“We tend to be most critical of ourselves,” continued Hubbard, “and these criticisms are amplified in the news. This self-hatred can be divisive, but many are driven to it out of laudable motives, even when they’re misguided or misinformed. We seek to better ourselves, and to be accepting of other cultures. But the result is often that we’re hypersensitive to the slightest hint of injustice in our own country, while ignoring appalling abuses in others. Many of us even hold these other countries up as shining examples, when the opposite is true.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“This is why I find the Schopenhauer quote so insightful. “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“When it comes to the existence of UFOs, we’ve reached a tipping point. The burden of proof used to be on the believers to prove that UFOs are real. Now the burden of proof has shifted to the government and military to prove that they’re not real. Because the evidence is overwhelming.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Whether the world would be controlled by dictatorship or democracy could well come down to a single scientist. The recruitment and control of individual geniuses had become far more important than it had been at any time in human history.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Being extra cautious is just part of the covert operative instruction manual.” “Good,” said Allie. “Caution is just the quality I’m looking for in the man handling my personal security.” The commander laughed. “I’m even willing to sleep in the same bed with you for added protection. Now that’s going the extra mile.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“A concrete parking lot served the facility, but the builders had taken the unusual step of placing it behind the factory. In the front, rather than a cold sea of concrete and parked cars, dozens of massive trees had been left standing, with a lawn of grass between them, beautifying all vehicle approaches to the facility considerably. Either the owners were able to buy this land on the leading edge of a woods for very little money, or they believed that they would attract and retain workers better if their factory was nestled in tranquility.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“And cell phones were the ultimate distraction, carefully designed and evolved to become as addictive as possible. She had been sucked into the satanic device’s irresistible black-hole pull completely just after she had emerged from what she called her dark years, having traded one set of addictions for another. But she had finally managed to beat this back also, to the point of maintaining an almost monk-like phone celibacy. Prior to this, even having the cursed device in the same room with her resulted in her checking it every five minutes, a drug addict willing to kill, if necessary, for a desperately needed hit, each time destroying her train of thought and forward momentum.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“In 1944, an experiment was conducted that should have conclusively proven that DNA was actually the carrier of the genetic code, but these results were resisted and largely ignored. Scientists had convinced themselves that DNA was too simple to be the conductor of the orchestra, and clung to this belief. Again, once consensus is reached, it isn’t easily overcome,”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“But whatever you choose to believe about the US, believe this: China has become a totalitarian state, and its citizens don’t have a fraction of the freedoms that we have here. And don’t be fooled by the propaganda. The US isn’t perfect, by any means, but it’s still a bastion of liberty that continues to be a positive force in the world.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“We seek to better ourselves, and to be accepting of other cultures. But the result is often that we’re hypersensitive to the slightest hint of injustice in our own country, while ignoring appalling abuses in others. Many of us even hold these other countries up as shining examples, when the opposite is true.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“PART 1 “Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.” —Michael Crichton.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“It took me a while to draw the parallel myself,” said Hoyer. “Life may not transmute elements like the nanites do, but it does almost everything else the same way. A single fertilized human egg cell knows how to start dividing. How to convert raw materials it finds in its environment into copies of itself. Growing from one cell into trillions. And talk about complexity. Each division requires the cell’s machinery to find the molecular constituents needed to assemble all the ingredients of the cell, including all three billion letters of DNA. Which, if typed out, would fill hundreds of printed volumes. And which has to be copied with near perfect fidelity.” The major paused for effect. “And if this isn’t impressive enough,” he continued, “the cells are also able to change form on command. At some point in the process, some of them morph into heart cells, some eye cells, some blood cells, and so on. How?”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“And just like with the cell phone, the replica is not only perfect, it even maintains the electron patterns of old texts, emails, and so on. Or, in the case of a man, the replica has every last neuronal pathway and memory intact. Along with whatever ineffable quality you call the spark of life.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“But this wasn’t the case when running a quantum computer. These computers could run Shor’s algorithm and come to the answer almost immediately. Which basically saved an infinity of time. And who could put a price on that? The government had begun using symmetric cryptographic algorithms, such as AES, which stood for Advanced Encryption Standard, for enciphering major databases and protecting classified data. But a quantum computer could easily break these also, this time using Grover’s algorithm.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Perhaps one sentence summed it up best, “The United States and China are locked in a cold tech war, and the winner will end up dominating the twenty-first century.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Those without a conscience, without a soul, had a huge advantage over those burdened by ethics, self-doubt, and decency, as they were capable of epic displays of betrayal and duplicity, without fear, guilt, or remorse ever entering the picture.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“As the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer had famously expressed, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“whatever you choose to believe about the US, believe this: China has become a totalitarian state, and its citizens don’t have a fraction of the freedoms that we have here. And don’t be fooled by the propaganda. The US isn’t perfect, by any means, but it’s still a bastion of liberty that continues to be a positive force in the world.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Because we aren’t wired for utopia. Evolution didn’t drive us to the top of the food chain by allowing us to be content. Human evolution favors anxiety over happiness. Happiness dulls our sharpness. Anxiety, on the other hand, ensures we maximize our attention to possible threats to our survival. “We’re also wired to challenge ourselves. To overcome adversity. Compete. Generate adrenaline. Achieve.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“The Scientist (2019) “Quantum Biology May Help Solve Some of Life’s Greatest Mysteries.” Nature (2021) “Birds Have a Mysterious ‘Quantum Sense’. For The First Time, Scientists Saw It in Action.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“its outer Amazon coating was quickly shredded as incoming fire skinned the vehicle alive, revealing the carbyne-reinforced structure underneath. It was like a Terminator whose face had been torn off to reveal the gleaming, indestructible skeleton within.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Because we aren’t wired for utopia. Evolution didn’t drive us to the top of the food chain by allowing us to be content. Human evolution favors anxiety over happiness. Happiness dulls our sharpness. Anxiety, on the other hand, ensures we maximize our attention to possible threats to our survival.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“After she had come out of her downward spiral, she had studied up on this condition, and was amazed by what she found. Fully one percent of the population fell into this category, and many were brilliant and high functioning, becoming extraordinarily successful scientists, politicians, and CEOs, mostly because they were utterly ruthless and predatory, had no conscience, and didn’t feel guilt or shame.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Wiring this much money into Kathy’s account, when she hadn’t even given him routing numbers, was his way of showing off. His way of getting Allie’s attention.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.” ​—Michael Crichton.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“God can do anything, right? He’s all powerful. So he could have created a species of gods. He could have filled the universe with his equals. But instead, he created an inferior species to worship him. Aronson obviously prefers to do the same.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“The US was fully capable of catching up from behind. In Reed’s view, free societies, whose people were raised with a can-do attitude and whose culture embraced individualistic, maverick approaches, could outpace scientists raised in tightly controlled totalitarian societies every time.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code

“Schopenhauer quote so insightful. “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
― Douglas E. Richards, The Immortality Code