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Shannon-type message sources could not exist if the universe were not subject to laws of nature and far from thermal equilibrium.

— Julian Barbour Bit from It (2011)

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Space

More quotes by Julian Barbour

Information theory would never have got off the ground if structured things—configurations—did not exist.

Bit from It (2011)

Ontological primacy should not be given to information but to things, as has always been the standpoint of realists.

Bit from It (2011)

Thus, even now, three and a half centuries after Galileo... it is still remarkably difficult to say categorically whether the earth moves...

There is one metalaw of science: it cannot exist without structured things. Structured variety is the ground of being. That is what gives content to both science and life.

Bit from It (2011)

Richard Feynman... said, "Time is what happens when nothing else does." ...[T]hat's ...not the right way to think about time.

Julian Barbour on the nature of time (2009)

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Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky.

Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Julian Barbour (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.