Vernor Vinge Quotes - Page 2

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• Well, what do you know," Pham said. "Butterflies in jackboots.

  Vernor Vinge

  Butterfly, Said, Wells

  Vernor Vinge (2017). “The Zones of Thought Series: (A Fire Upon the Deep, The Children of the Sky, A Deepness in the Sky)”, p.281, Macmillan

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• We humans have millions of years of evolutionary baggage that makes us regard competition in a deadly light.

  Vernor Vinge

  Light, Years, Competition

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• Note that I am not proposing that AI research be ignored or less funded.

  Vernor Vinge

  Research, Ignored, Notes

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• And for all my rampant technological optimism, sometimes I think I'd be more comfortable if I were regarding these transcendental events from one thousand years remove... instead of twenty.

  Vernor Vinge

  Thinking, Years, Optimism

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• The dilemma felt by science fiction writers will be perceived in other creative endeavors.

  Vernor Vinge

  Science, Creative, Fiction

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• One of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability.

  Vernor Vinge

  Perfection, Empathy, Talent

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.454, Macmillan

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• Animals can adapt to problems and make inventions, but often no faster than natural selection can do its work - the world acts as its own simulator in the case of natural selection.

  Vernor Vinge

  Animal, World, Problem

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• Life is a green madness just now, trying to squeeze the last bit of warmth from the season.

  Vernor Vinge

  Trying, Green, Lasts

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.119, Macmillan

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• Hexapodia as the key insight...I haven't had a chance to see the famous video from Straumli Realm, except as an evocation. (My only gateway onto the Net is very expensive.) Is it true that humans have six legs?

  Vernor Vinge

  Keys, Video, Legs

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• How to explain? How to describe? Even the omniscient viewpoint quails.

  Vernor Vinge

  Viewpoints, Quails, Omniscient

  Vernor Vinge, Maureen F. McHugh (1993). “The Tor sf sampler: featuring excerpts from the 1993 Nebula and Hugo nominees : A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge and China mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh”

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• When people speak of creating superhumanly intelligent beings, they are usually imagining an AI project.

  Vernor Vinge

  Intelligent, Creating, People

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• The work that is truly productive is the domain of a steadily smaller and more elite fraction of humanity.

  Vernor Vinge

  Humanity, Fractions, Domain

  "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era". Presentation at VISION-21 Symposium, edoras.sdsu.edu. March 1993.

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• I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.

  Vernor Vinge

  Hurt, Faces, Cry

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.258, Macmillan

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• When I began writing science fiction in the middle 60s, it seemed very easy to find ideas that took decades to percolate into the cultural consciousness; now the lead time seems more like eighteen months.

  Vernor Vinge

  Writing, Science, Ideas

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• Here I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It's a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intelligences greater than our own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity - a place where extrapolation breaks down and new models must be applied - and the world will pass beyond our understanding.

  Vernor Vinge

  Technology, Understanding, World

  Vernor Vinge (2002). “The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge”, p.44, Macmillan

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• Politics may come and go, but Greed goes on forever.

  Vernor Vinge

  Greed, Forever, Goes On

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.68, Macmillan

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• He claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind - but most everybody else agreed it made you daft.

  Vernor Vinge

  Gun, Mind, Thunder

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.373, Macmillan

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• I have come to kill you."The death's heads shrugged. "You have come to try.

  Vernor Vinge

  Trying

  Vernor Vinge (2017). “The Zones of Thought Series: (A Fire Upon the Deep, The Children of the Sky, A Deepness in the Sky)”, p.477, Macmillan

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• The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.

  Vernor Vinge

  Heart, Manipulation, Touched

  Vernor Vinge (2017). “The Zones of Thought Series: (A Fire Upon the Deep, The Children of the Sky, A Deepness in the Sky)”, p.448, Macmillan

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• Peregrine Wickwrackscar was flying. A pilgrim with legends that went back almost a thousand years-and not one of them could come near to this!

  Vernor Vinge

  Years, Flying, Legends

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.595, Macmillan

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• All his life he had lived by the law. Often his job had been to stop acts of revenge....And now revenge was all that life had left for him.

  Vernor Vinge

  Jobs, Revenge, Law

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.428, Macmillan

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• The illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I'll bet you never guess. From the inside, how can you?

  Vernor Vinge

  Running, Self, Illusion

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.255, Macmillan

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• Another symptom of progress toward the Singularity: ideas themselves should spread ever faster, and even the most radical will quickly become commonplace.

  Vernor Vinge

  Ideas, Progress, Corny

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• Pham Nuwen plunked himself down, stretching indolently.

  Vernor Vinge

  Stretching

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.171, Macmillan

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• Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.

  Vernor Vinge

  Pain, Deception, Levers

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.145, Macmillan

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