Maps, charts, and atlases lay open and in places overlapping, littering the floor wall to shelved wall, so that I had to step on certain of them to reach a chair; various files, many of them fastened open at marked or paper-clipped places,
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“The science fiction writer and futurologist Arthur C. Clarke wrote that if an eminent professor states that something is undoubtedly true, then it is likely to be proved false the next day.”
― Fermat's Enigma
― Fermat's Enigma
“Nobody in SunSeeker’s crew was given to big shows of emotion, shouting, brags, insults, tears and drama, big proclamations of love or hate, stomping out of meetings. No bipolars, no geniuses. Rather, they were members of the sober, hardheaded, but soft-spoken race. Educated to a fault, practical as a paper clip. Considered, deliberate, oatmeal steady, skeptical and sharp-eyed when they met new ideas, unflappable, but—and this was what cut down through the applicant list like a hot knife through ripe butter—with an appetite for adventure. An odd assortment of those realists nonetheless willing to dive down the funnel of time and come out centuries later in a strange new place, ready for the dangerous and eager for the grand. This made them short on hugs and compliments, quick with the narrowed eye, short on the soft warm armloads of comfort.”
― Bowl of Heaven
― Bowl of Heaven
“I can’t say,” replied Gordo. “Remember, I only joined your team after the Patel incident.” “I wish you’d stop bitching about ‘the Patel incident.’” “Look,” said Gordo, “you can’t just morph a federal scientist into a giant invertebrate that catches fire. That’s not an acceptable protocol.”
― Loco
― Loco
“The sole aim of the institute’s existence is to bring together the world’s greatest intellects for a few weeks in order to hold seminars on a cutting-edge research topic of their choice. Situated on the outskirts of the university, away from students and other distractions, the building is especially designed to encourage the academics to concentrate on collaboration and brainstorming. There are no dead-end corridors in which to hide and every office faces a central forum. The mathematicians are supposed to spend time in this open area, and are discouraged from keeping their office doors closed. Collaboration while moving around the institute is also encouraged—even the elevator, which travels only three floors, contains a blackboard. In fact every room in the building has at least one blackboard, including the bathrooms.”
― Fermat's Enigma
― Fermat's Enigma
“Both Samuel Butler and Olaf Stapledon saw that mind, once given a taste of time, would never rest until eternity lay within its grasp. Thus we pursue those relations between sequence and structure that allow us to escape time’s surface, venturing into that ocean that separates eternity from the instant in which we exist. Mathematics and music are two of the vehicles that assist us in our escape. Mathematics is available to a few; music is available to all. Mathematics allows us to assemble mental structures by which we comprehend entire sequences of logical implication at once. Music allows us to assemble temporal sequences into mental scaffolding that transcends the thinness of time in which we live. Through music, we are able to share four-dimensional structures we are otherwise only able to observe in slices, one moment at a time.”
― Darwin Among The Machines: The Evolution Of Global Intelligence
― Darwin Among The Machines: The Evolution Of Global Intelligence
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