Paul Levinson has outdone himself: The Plot to Save Socrates is a philosophically rich gem full of big ideas and wonderful time-travel tricks.
No one disputes that seeming order can come out of the application of simple rules. But who wrote the rules?
Not wanting to die was another universal constant, it seemed.
If theft is advantageous to everyone who succeeds at it, and adultery is a good strategy, at least for males, for increasing presence in the gene pool, why do we feel they are wrong? Shouldn’t the only morality that evolution produces be the kind Bill Clinton had – being sorry you got caught?
Secrecy was the problem; transparency the obvious cure.
You can’t choose the ways in which you’ll be tested.
That natural selection can produce changes within a type is disputed by no one, not even the staunchest creationist. But that it can transform one species into another – that, in fact, has never been observed.
He had a collection of science-fiction films on DVD and Blu-ray discs, and although he said he’d seen most of them before, Caitlin was surprised to discover how many of the cases were still shrink-wrapped. “Why’d you buy them if you weren’t going to watch them?” she asked. He looked at the tall, thin cabinets that contained the movies and seemed to ponder the question. “My childhood was on sale,” he said at last, “so I bought it.
Donald Trump was building a pyramid in the Nevada desert to house his eventual remains. When done, it will be ten meters taller than the Great Pyramid at Giza.
There is no debt between people who are in love; there is only total forgiveness, and going forward.
I get tired of hearing some science-fiction fans saying that characterization isn’t important in SF. In point of fact, I think it’s probably more important in SF than in mainstream fiction. After all, if the author can’t characterize humans well, he or she probably can’t characterize aliens well either.
That is fine. Feeling a need to convince others that you are right also is something that comes from religion, I think; I am simply content to know that I am right, even if others do not know it.
It is the difference: we generalize do not. Specific bad humans did specific bad things; those humans do we not like. But the rest of humanity we judge one by one.
We’ve known since 2007 that there’s superposition in chlorophyll, for instance. Photosynthesis has a ninety-five percent energy-transfer efficiency rate, which is better than anything we can engineer. Plants achieve that by using superposition to simultaneously try all the possible pathways between their light-collecting molecules and their reaction-center proteins so that energy is always sent down the most efficient route; it’s a form of biological quantum computing.
A smoking gun is incontrovertible evidence. And that’s what I want: indisputable proof.” “There is no indisputable proof for the big bang,” said Hollus. “And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?
La Belle Aurore. The Germans wore gray; she wore blue.
To use the human metaphor, it would be like trying to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. It can’t be done.
He hoped the experiment would indeed succeed today. The next Gray Council was coming up soon, and he and Adikor would have to explain again what they were giving back to the community through their work. Scientists usually got their proposals approved – everyone could clearly see how science had bettered their lives – but, still, it was always more satisfying to report positive results.
The two heaviest known substances are neutronium and cartons of books.
You know the difference between a psychopath and a homeopath?” She shook her head. “Some psychopaths do no harm.