Chuck Silva

“Optimism is, in the first instance, a way of explaining failure, not prophesying success. It says that there is no fundamental barrier, no law of nature or supernatural decree, preventing progress. Whenever”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

“To interpret dots in the sky as white-hot, million-kilometre spheres, one must first have thought of the idea of such spheres. And then one must explain why they look small and cold and seem to move in lockstep around us and do not fall down. Such ideas do not create themselves, nor can they be mechanically derived from anything: they have to be guessed – after which they can be criticized and tested.”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

“There can be no question of which was the greatest era for culture; the answer has to be today, until it is superseded by tomorrow.”
― Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

“Sparta has no philosophers. That’s because the job of a philosopher is to understand things better, which is a form of change, so they don’t want it. Another difference: they don’t honour living poets, only dead ones. Why? Because dead poets don’t write anything new, but live ones do. A third difference: their education system is insanely harsh; ours is famously lax. Why? Because they don’t want their kids to dare to question anything, so that they won’t ever think of changing anything. How”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World