Quantum computation is a distinctively new way of harnessing nature. It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes.
David DeutschRead
Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Feeling small in the vast universe is as misguided as feeling inferior for not being something else entirely.
In this quote, David Deutsch illustrates how one's self-worth should not be determined by the scale of the universe or by comparing oneself to something entirely different. He emphasizes that feelings of insignificance arise from a misunderstanding of personal value and highlights the absurdity of measuring worth against arbitrary standards.
Themes
InsignificanceSelf-WorthUniverseValueComparison
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a motivational speech about self-acceptance.
More from David Deutsch
All quotes →Science is objective. And in my view we cannot take any experimental results seriously except in the light of good explanations of them.
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If you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.
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Discovering a new explanation is inherently an act of creativity.
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To me quantum computation is a new and deeper and better way to understand the laws of physics, and hence understanding physical reality as a whole.
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Where we have good, testable explanations, they then have to be tested, and we drop the ones that fail the tests.
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