Kim StanleyHumans were still not only the cheapest robots around, but also, for many tasks, the only robots that could do the job. They were self-reproducing robots too. They showed up and w… ▶371HumanityTime
Kim StanleyIn a capitalist world, the word capital has taken on more and more uses. . . . human capital, for instance, which is what labor accumulates through education and work experience. … ▶362HumanityLife
Kim StanleyHabits begin to form at the very first repetition. After that there is a tropism toward repetition, for the patterns involved are defenses , bulwarks against time and despair.345Time
Kim StanleyThe only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing. X claims a, Y claims b. They make arguments to support their claims with any number of poi… ▶302HumanityThought
Kim StanleyIt makes us a thread in a tapestry that has unrolled for centuries before us, and will unroll for centuries after us. We're midway through the loom, that's the present, and what w… ▶302ReadingTime
Kim StanleyIt would take 2,000 Vietnam Memorials to list the [Twentieth] century's war dead.379Death
Kim StanleyThe command to be free is a double bind335Politics
Kim StanleyNone of us know our real names.281Time
Kim StanleyMany of the technologies we've invented are necessary to keep 6.5 billion people alive. We can't go back from that, so we need to decarbonize really rapidly.293HumanityLife
Kim StanleyEvery moment an epiphany arrives and cleaves the mountain asunder294Time
Kim StanleyWe’ll all say that. We’ll all go on and make the place safe. Roads, cities. New sky, new soil. Until it’s all some kind of Siberia or Northwest Territories, and Mars will be gone … ▶338Thought
Kim StanleyThe invisible hand never picks up the check.338Death
Kim StanleyWe are here to inscribe ourselves on the universe, and it is not inappropriate to remind ourselves of this when blank slates are given us.3510Thought
Kim StanleyMoney equals power; power makes the law; and law makes government.273Politics
Kim StanleyEach of us have a gift, you see, given us freely by the universe. And each of us with every breath gives something back252Humor
Kim StanleyAn excess of reason is itself a form of madness319Politics
Kim StanleyVery few people ever bother to find out what other people really think. They are willing to accept whatever they are told about anyone sufficiently distant.253HumanityThought
Kim StanleyThe only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing.276HumanityThought
Kim StanleyWithout an observer at a twenty three degree angle to the light being reflected off a cloud of spherical droplets, there is no rainbow. The whole universe is like that. Our spirit… ▶288ReflectionThought
Kim StanleyLogic was to cognition as geometry was to landscape299Reflection
Kim StanleyWhat kind of Dv would it take to escape history, to escape an inertia that powerful, and carve a new course? The hardest part is leaving Earth behind.267Politics
Kim StanleyThe idea that each corporation can be a feudal monarchy and yet behave in its corporate action like a democratic citizen concerned for the world we live in is one of the great abs… ▶201ThoughtTime
Kim StanleyIn the beginning was the dream, and the work of disenchantment never ends.257Humor
Kim StanleyYou can't get any movement larger than five people without including at least one flippin idiot.191Humanity
Kim StanleyYou can't choose your childhood, it's just what happens to you. But after that you choose. And that's really what (makes you).235Sadness
Kim StanleyIt's too bad we only had the courage to live our lives fully in dreams.192Death
Kim StanleyFirst you fall in love with Antarctica, and then it breaks your heart.171Love
Kim StanleyThe distinguishing mark of true adventures, is that it is often no fun at all while they are actually happening.215Truth
Kim StanleyHistorical analogy is the last refuge of people who can't grasp the current situation.238Humanity
Kim StanleyLife is insanely robust, though we can make species go extinct, and this is the bad thing. So I always make the point that you can't say, 'Is it too late?' That is the terrible qu… ▶183Life
