12 quotes
I’m sure they’ll come up with all kinds of rationalizations, if the human precedent is anything to go by.
Learning the World (2005)
Darvin listened to the hymn with a mixture of enjoyment of its beauty and disdain of its content.
Learning the World (2005)
All life is a struggle for existence. Why should it cease to be a struggle if it spreads among the stars?
Learning the World (2005)
It saddened him that military technology was so much more advanced than he’d ever imagined.
Learning the World (2005)
Of all the sciences, astronomy was the one the superstitious liked least.
Learning the World (2005)
Falling in love indicated that your genes were complementary to those of the loved one. It told you nothing about when your personalities and sexualities were compatible.
Learning the World (2005)
“Anyway...I find what you write interesting.”
“That’s what people usually say when they disagree with it.”
Learning the World (2005)
For us scientists, on the other wing, life is not quite so simple. Because we learn the unknown. Unlike, hah-hah, our esteemed friends the philosophers, who learn the unknowable.
Learning the World (2005)
She knew about these asteroids, of course. It was because she had classified them in the wrong mental category that she hadn’t thought of them.
Learning the World (2005)
If you, dear reader, are looking a this across some great gulf of time and increase of knowledge, spare me your condescension. You too were young once, and ignorant once, and from a future standpoint—perhaps your own—you are young and ignorant still.
Learning the World (2005)
The cover pirated the pictures on the Southern pamphlet and headlined a story whose title, “Invasion from Infinity!,” bore witness to a brash disdain of doing right as much as of blithe contempt for having been proved wrong.
Learning the World (2005)
It’s a big coincidence. It’s something we can’t explain. But as far as we know that’s all it is. And if it isn’t, we’ll only find out by discovering more facts, not speculating, no matter how logical that speculation might seem. The way to learn the world is to look at the world.
Learning the World (2005)