#scienc

Today the network of relationships linking the human race to itself and to the rest of the biosphere is so complex that all aspects affect all others to an extraordinary degree. Someone should be studying the whole system, however crudely that has to be done, because no gluing together of partial studies of a complex nonlinear system can give a good idea of the behavior of the whole. ↗

— Murray Gell-Mann

#science #systems #science

All that was required to measure the planet was a man with a stick and a brain. In other words, couple an intellect with some experimental apparatus and almost anything seems achievable. ↗

— Simon Singh

#science

The alternative to thinking in evolutionary terms is not to think at all. ↗

— Peter B. Medawar

#science #thinking #science

...science fiction is something that could happen - but usually you wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn't happen - though often you only wish that it could. ↗

— Arthur C. Clarke

#science-fiction #science

The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#science

Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#science

Two there shall be; no more, no less. One to embody the dark side, the other to crave it. ↗

— Drew Karpyshyn

#science

If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good skeptic. ↗

— Ann Druyan

#positivism #sagan #science #skepticism #theology

Those deep set eyes that look like they could tell stories for days, and that wavy brown hair that feels soft between my fingers. I try to memorize the angles of his jaw and the lines of his lips, because I know. I know this may be the last time I ever see him. Breathe fills my lungs, my throat relaxes, and I can't help but smile. Because I can see what he's thinking as clearly as if he'd spoken. He doesn't want to leave - he doesn't want to go home. He's going to choose me instead. ↗

— Elizabeth Norris

#ben-and-janelle #countdown #science-fiction #science-fiction-romance #unraveling

You want to tell a story? Grow a heart. Grow two. Now, with the second heart, smash the first one into bits. Gross, right? A bloody pulpy liquid mess. Look at it, try to make sense of it. Realize you can't. Because there is no sense. Ask your computer to print out a list of every lie you have ever told. Ask yourself how much of the universe you have ever really seen. Look in the mirror. Are you sure you're you? Are you sure you didn't slip out of yourself in the middle of the night, and someone else slipped into you, without you or you or any of you even noticing? ↗

— Charles Yu

#hearts #identity #lies #mirrors #sense