Vernor VingeHere I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It's a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intellig… ▶371HumanityReflectionTime
Vernor VingeLittle fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The Deep, p.93, Macmilla… ▶371Time
Vernor VingeTechnical people don't make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2007). A Deepness in the Sky, p.26, Macmillan353HumanityLove
Vernor VingeWe humans have millions of years of evolutionary baggage that makes us regard competition in a deadly light.333DeathHumanity
Vernor VingeSometimes the biggest disasters aren't noticed at all – no one's around to write horror stories. ✨ A Fire Upon the Deep. Book by Vernor Vinge, April 1992.355ReadingTime
Vernor VingeI never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The Deep, p.258, Macmillan358Sadness
Vernor VingeAll evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is… ▶358Thought
Vernor VingeWhat we have is a data glut.327Life
Vernor VingeEven the largest avalanche is triggered by small things. ✨ The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era. Article for the VISION-21 Symposium, e… ▶306Humanity
Vernor VingeAnother symptom of progress toward the Singularity: ideas themselves should spread ever faster, and even the most radical will quickly become commonplace.296ReadingThought
Vernor VingeIntelligence is the handmaiden of flexibility and change. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The Deep, p.72, Macmillan242Hope
Vernor VingeSometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire U… ▶297SadnessTime
Vernor VingePolitics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance i… ▶276HumanityPoliticsReading
Vernor VingeHe claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind - but most everybody else agreed it made you daft. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The Deep, p.373, Macmillan257Thought
Vernor VingeWithin thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. ✨ The Coming Technological Singulari… ▶2710HumanityTime
Vernor VingeWe’re long on high principles and short on simple human understanding. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2007). A Deepness in the Sky, p.753, Macmillan216Humanity
Vernor VingeIn fact, there was general agreement that minds can exist on nonbiological substrates and that algorithms are of central importance to the existence of minds.184LifeThoughtTruth
Vernor VingeThe illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I'll bet you never guess. From the inside, how can you? ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The… ▶141Reflection
Vernor VingeAnd for all my rampant technological optimism, sometimes I think I'd be more comfortable if I were regarding these transcendental events from one thousand years remove... instead … ▶165HopeThoughtTime
Vernor VingeOne of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The Deep, p.454, Macmillan177Sadness
Vernor VingeNote that I am not proposing that AI research be ignored or less funded.166Reflection
Vernor VingeOnce upon a time I was such a good liar; I could talk the fish right into my mouths. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2010). A Fire Upon The Deep, p.546, Macmillan134Time
Vernor VingeSo much technology, so little talent. ✨ Vernor Vinge (2011). Rainbow's End, p.52, Pan Macmillan167Life
Vernor VingeWe 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 … ▶1510HumanityTime
