Sometimes the biggest disasters aren't noticed at all β no one's around to write horror stories.
Vernor VingeRead
Little fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the struggle and ignorance of individuals seeking greatness without understanding its true nature.
Vernor Vinge's quote speaks to the ambition and daring nature of individuals, represented as 'little fish', who aspire for greatness or divinity ('a piece of godhood') but often lack the wisdom to discern the ramifications of their pursuits ('not knowing heaven from hell'). It highlights the folly and courage inherent in human desires, particularly when one seeks something profound without the necessary understanding of its value or consequences.
In practice
In a presentation on the dangers of unchecked ambition.
Sometimes the biggest disasters aren't noticed at all β no one's around to write horror stories.
We will soon create intelligences greater than our own ... When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity, an intellectual transition as impenetrable as the knotted space-time at the center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our understanding.
The problem is not simply that the Singularity represents the passing of humankind from center stage, but that it contradicts our most deeply held notions of being.
Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
There is a history in all men's lives.
For, dear me, why abandon a belief, Merely because it ceases to be true, Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt, It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Year's end, all _x000D_ _x000D_ corners of this _x000D_ _x000D_ floating world, swept.
It is arguable that the success of business propaganda in persuading us, for so long, that we are free from propaganda is one of the most significant propaganda achievements of the twentieth century.
It's a curse - this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy.
If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.
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