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60efebf
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Blatant idiocies had been tried by early men and women--foolishness that would never have been considered by species aware of the laws of nature. Desperate superstitions had bred during the savage centuries. Styles of government, intrigues, philosophies were tested with abandon. It was almost as if Orphan Earth had been a planetary laboratory, upon which a series of senseless and bizarre experiments were tried. Illogical and shameful as the..
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David Brin |
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e75a934
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I regret having been the bearer of ambiguous tidings.
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David Brin |
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4572037
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As simple an act as reading or writing a sentence must be surrounded by perceptory nap and weave . . . an itch, a stray memory from childhood, the distant sound of a barking dog, or something left over from the lunch that is found caught between the teeth.
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David Brin |
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d780c11
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Magic and art arise from an egomaniac's insistence that the artist is right, and the universe wrong.
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David Brin |
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3234dc1
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First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, s..
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David Brin |
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a619d19
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So if it appears that my argument supports the necessity of lawyers, please accept that I say it with reluctant awareness that things would be worse without them.
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David Brin |
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93e6e3b
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If we humans annihilate ourselves, mammalian genes are rich enough to replace us with another, maybe wiser race within a few million years. Perhaps descendants of coyotes or raccoons, creatures too adaptable ever to need refuge in arks. Too tough to be wiped out by any calamity the likes of us create.
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David Brin |
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c73d8dd
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Strong privacy advocates--especially those promoting encryption and anonymity--may deny that this phenomenon is a direct physical corollary of their message, so I will let the reader decide whether a philosophy that relies on cybernetic gates, walls, and coded locks is any different in its underlying basis--fear.
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David Brin |
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77ac9a0
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Martianus Capella strove to collect what he considered the highest accomplishments of his culture, the Seven Liberal Arts, and his collection--in weird poesical format--seemed a candle to many, during the Dark Ages. That story inspired Isaac Asimov, by the way, to write his famed Foundation sci-fi series.
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David Brin |
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37d2a15
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If only I were equipped with better organs! Weren't we supposed to be getting deep bio-upgrades by the time I hit fifty? Why is the future always ... in the future?
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David Brin |
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4603d95
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Dear Net-Mail User [ EweR-635-78-2267-3 aSp]: Your mailbox has just been rifled by EmilyPost, an autonomous courtesy-worm chain program released in October 2036 by an anonymous group of net subscribers in western Alaska. [ ref: sequestered confession 592864-2376298.98634, deposited with Bank Leumi 10/23/36:20:34:21. Expiration-disclosure 10 years.] Under the civil disobedience sections of the Charter of Rio, we accept in advance the fines a..
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David Brin |
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7051e6a
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But Orpheus failed because, like all pakeha, he just couldn't keep his mind on one thing at a time.
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David Brin |
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40777b0
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In other words, bright people with too much time on their hands, overly influenced by notions they found in old Earth books.
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David Brin |
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219bcca
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The radicals are right about that. Diversity is the key. "But it need not be the same diversity as existed before mankind. Indeed, it cannot be the same. We are in a time of changes. Species will pass away and others take their place, as has happened before. An ecosystem frozen in stone can only become a fossil."
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David Brin |
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e8a8af5
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the towering standing wave that composes the symphony of thought.
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David Brin |
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eb3835a
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Keep as few secrets as possible. The remaining ones will be easier to protect.
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David Brin |
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a6112a0
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We have earned our peace. It is, by now, more precious than honor, or even pity.
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peace
rest
reward
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David Brin |
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789c660
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Where is it written that one should only care about big things?
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simplicity
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David Brin |
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f24cdcc
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We can't save the world without food. Only people with full stomachs become environmentalists.
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David Brin |
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c5efe0f
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How strange. Humans always seem so much in control. Is it just a grand act, to fool both others and themselves?
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David Brin |
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ede7be3
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Someday we may look back on this era as a time when rational compromises might have enhanced both security and liberty, but those compromises were refused because each side was so busy self-righteously being right.
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David Brin |
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c5ba04b
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Obviously they thought their Lord was giving the haughty tirbeswoman
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David Brin |
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13f4706
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The world may end later than the year 2060, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit. --Sir Isaac Newton
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David Brin |
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7c50305
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all facts are created equal.
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David Brin |
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3fb66b9
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There was a time, in living memory, when this nation bestrode the planet like a titan.
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David Brin |
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0757a36
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Way back, about a century ago, physicist Enrico Fermi and his colleagues, taking a lunch break from the Manhattan Project, found themselves discussing life in the cosmos. Some younger scientists claimed that amid trillions of stars there should be countless living worlds inhabited by intelligent races, far older than ours. How interesting the future might be, with others to talk to! Fermi listened patiently, then asked: "So? Shouldn't we ha..
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David Brin |
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4c5e351
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Metaphorically speaking, some very bright people suggest that citizens of the twenty-first century will be best protected by masks and shields, while I prefer the image of a light saber.
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David Brin |
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a697b0c
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Analog, or Asimov's Magazine, or The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
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David Brin |
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17cae63
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Would we be tormenting ourselves over the Kennedy assassination today if fifty cameras had been rolling, instead of just poor Abraham Zapruder's?
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David Brin |
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78db1f0
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Demonstrating some of the proposed new techniques of encrypted uniqueness verification that can be embedded in each customer's use-copy of a given work.
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David Brin |
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5a2eda2
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Responsibility was our cruel mooring....
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David Brin |
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4420948
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This is ridiculous," Teresa told Pedro. "She's sounding like a bad Lovecraft novel now."
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David Brin |
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c346bb6
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A living planet is a much more complex metaphor for deity than just a bigger father with a bigger fist.
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David Brin |
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2c03bc1
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Yes, but all that's needed is to break reciprocity," he answered. "By controlling information, making sure it flows one way. Take over the databases. Trump up panic situations, so the public will support paternalistic 'protections.' Make sure lots of privacy laws get passed, then bribe open some back doors, so elites can see it all anyway, and 'privacy' only protects them. "Of course there's more to the program than that," Hamish continued,..
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David Brin |
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0c58111
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I had to admit, standing there, that sometimes you just gotta admire the passion of the truly insane -- a passion that bulls right past all sense or reason.
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David Brin |
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6ab3e42
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new astronomy also had to adjust to the idea that what their senses told them everyday was untrue - that the world did not revolve around them alone.
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David Brin |
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618abb9
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a species used to strict patterns of inherited hierarchy.
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David Brin |
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fa25427
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Though his book vigorously promotes strong privacy, Miller notes that people routinely trade personal information for convenience or a few dollars of savings, even offering names of "friends and families" to commercial users, if it benefits them."
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David Brin |
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225a03b
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Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea." "Why, as men do aland--the great ones eat up the little ones." --WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE King Richard the Second"
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David Brin |
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ee41a80
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If only I had a decent sense of humor Ah, well. Where subtlety fails us we must simply make do with cream pies.
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David Brin |
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2fb8338
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Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Don't assign to stupidity what might be due to ignorance. And try not to assume your opponent is the ignorant one -- until you can show it isn't you.
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David Brin |
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ddeec6a
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I've put some thought to it. How can we set up a system which encourages individuals to strive and excel, and yet which shows some compassion to the weak, and weeds out madmen and tyrants?
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David Brin |
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6dbc659
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Where it is strongest, it must still contend ceaselessly with macho, paranoiac, homogenizing, and other traditional forces that continue battling over the minds and actions of women and men - forces that may indeed be far more "natural" to us human animals, who are so innately egotistical and afraid. Add to this a plague of self-righteousness, in which both individuals and political factions seem more interested in the sweet mantras of thei..
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David Brin |
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7cb4e88
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Look. Studies show FEAR sets attitudes/tolerance to change. Fearful people reject foreign, alien, strange. Circle wagons. Pull in horizons. Horizons of time. Of tolerance. Of risk. Of Dreams.
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David Brin |