22 quotes
Let me define that [wealth] in a non-parochial way as the repertoire of physical transformations that they would be capable of causing.
The Beginning of Infinity (2011)
If something is permitted by the laws of physics, then the only thing that can prevent it from being technologically possible is not knowing how.
The Beginning of Infinity (2011)
Genes embody knowledge about their niches. Everything of fundamental significance about the phenomenon of life depends on this property, and not on replication per se.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
Could it be that the moral imperative not to destroy the means of correcting mistakes is the only moral imperative? That all other moral truths follow from it?
The Beginning of Infinity (2011)
Since building a universal virtual-reality generator is physically possible, it must actually be built in some universes.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every possible environment.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
To say that prediction is the purpose of a scientific theory is to confuse means with ends. It is like saying that the purpose of a spaceship is to burn fuel.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
The rational thing for a layperson to do is to take seriously the prevailing scientific theory.
Mathematical knowledge may, just like our scientific knowledge, be deep and broad, it may be subtle and wonderfully explanatory, it may be uncontroversially accepted; but it cannot be certain.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
The next chapter is likely to provoke many mathematicians. This can't be helped. Mathematics is not what they think it is.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
A prediction, or any assertion, that cannot be defended might still be true, but an explanation that cannot be defended is not an explanation.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
As I understand it, the claim is that the less you use Homeopathy, the better it works. Sounds plausible to me.
The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
Surely it is more interesting to argue about what the truth is, than about what some particular thinker, however great, did or did not think.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
Any theory about improvement raises the question: how is the knowledge of how to make that improvement created? Was it already present at the outset? The theory that it was is creationism. Did it ‘just happen’? The theory that it did is spontaneous generation.
The Beginning of Infinity (2011)
Time travel may be achieved one day, or it may not. But if it is, it should not require any fundamental change in world-view, at least for those who broadly share the world view I am presenting in this book.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
Quantum computation is … nothing less than a distinctly new way of harnessing nature … It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes, and then sharing the results.
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
Experience is indeed essential to science, but its role is different from that supposed by empiricism. It is not the source from which theories are derived. Its main use is to choose between theories that have already been guessed. That is what ‘learning from experience’ is.
The Beginning of Infinity (2011)
Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...
The Fabric of Reality (1997)
The misconception that knowledge needs authority to be genuine or reliable dates back to antiquity, and it still prevails. To this day, most courses in the philosophy of knowledge teach that knowledge is some form of justified, true belief, where ‘justified’ means designated as true (or at least ‘probable’) by reference to some authoritative source or touchstone of knowledge.
The Beginning of Infinity (2011)