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68beb08
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Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.
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prejudice
fiction
science
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Michael Crichton |
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830015d
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What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There's no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told-and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory ..
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humanity
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Michael Crichton |
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dbbece8
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God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs.
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Michael Crichton |
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4a361c3
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You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There's been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions..
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Michael Crichton |
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ab5da73
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God created dinosaurs. God destroyed dinosaurs. God created Man. Man destroyed God. Man created dinosaurs. Dinosaurs eat man...Woman inherits the earth.
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Michael Crichton |
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6ef5075
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Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.
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planet
jurassic-park
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Michael Crichton |
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500b0d4
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All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.
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Michael Crichton |
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4ccae6b
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No one escapes from life alive.
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life
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Michael Crichton |
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fd35997
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Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.
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purpose-of-life
meaning-of-life
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Michael Crichton |
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6224c3c
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Living systems are never in equilibrium. They are inherently unstable. They may seem stable, but they're not. Everything is moving and changing. In a sense, everything is on the edge of collapse.
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Michael Crichton |
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036c410
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Life will find a way.
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Michael Crichton |
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d45a1d8
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All major changes are like death. You can't see to the other side until you are there.
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Michael Crichton |
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de8b05f
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Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
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Michael Crichton |
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ca8fd69
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Discovery is always rape of the natural world. Always.
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Michael Crichton |
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ac1be01
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All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don't you take it away from yourself.
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Michael Crichton |
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d94a351
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Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else.
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Michael Crichton |
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ec69310
|
In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.
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Michael Crichton |
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0c9123c
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You know, at times like this one feels, well, perhaps extinct animals should be left extinct.
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Michael Crichton |
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6b2bed8
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The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature--all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal's behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes exinct.
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Michael Crichton |
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6aea6db
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Malcolm: A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife. The person who kills is the person who has no discipline, no restraint, and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special. And that is why you think that to build a place like this is simple. Hammond: It was simple. Malcolm: Then why did it go wrong?
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Michael Crichton |
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b8873e6
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You know what's wrong with scientific power? It's a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are.
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Michael Crichton |
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9105930
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And that's how things are. A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. . . . And at the end of your life, your whole existence has the same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.
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Michael Crichton |
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270f8ba
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We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so.
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Michael Crichton |
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be18574
|
Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species." Yes? Why is that?" Because it means the end of innovation," Malcolm said. "This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve fastest. You put a thousand birds on an ocean island and they'll evolve very fast. You put ten thousand on a big continent, and their evolution slows down. Now, for our own s..
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mankind
future
globalisation
mass-media
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Michael Crichton |
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a0ea6d2
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Anyone who says he knows God's intention is showing a lot of very human ego.
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religion
zealotry
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Michael Crichton |
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3679ddb
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I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on somet..
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evolution
bisphenol-a
bpa
dr-jack-cohen-podiatrist
excitotoxins
fluoride
man-made-global-warming
manmade-global-warming
minority-view
monosodium-glutamate
msg
scientific-discovery
scientific-inquiry
scientific-process
science
scientific-research
scientific-revolution
majority
scientific-theory
minority
consensus
scientific-method
global-warming
majority-view
september-11-attacks
id
macro-evolution
macroevolution
intelligent-design
darwinism
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Michael Crichton |
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6967589
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Praise not the day until evening has come, a woman until she is burnt, a sword until it is tried, a maiden until she is married, ice until it has been crossed, beer until it has been drunk.
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viking
wisdom
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Michael Crichton |
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8b5e50c
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It's hard to decide who's truly brilliant; it's easier to see who's driven, which in the long run may be more important.
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Michael Crichton |
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5f68ae7
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They don't have intelligence. They have what I call 'thintelligence.' They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and they call it 'being focused.' They don't see the surround. They don't see the consequences.
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Michael Crichton |
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67d8439
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Sometimes women scare the hell out of me.
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Michael Crichton |
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9fdceae
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Nobody smart knows what they want to do until they get into their twenties or thirties.
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Michael Crichton |
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828bca5
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Ellie said, "Isn't it a little warm for black?" You're extremely pretty, Dr. Sattler," he said. "I could look at your legs all day. But no, as a matter of fact, black is an excellent color for heat. If you remember your black-body radiation, black is actually best in heat. Efficient radiation. In any case, I wear only two colors, black and gray." Ellie was staring at him, her mouth open. "These colors are appropriate for any occasion," Malc..
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Michael Crichton |
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8d877d2
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They didn't understand what they were doing. I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.
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understanding
humanity
science
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Michael Crichton |
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0e23887
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Ellie said, "Isn't it a little warm for black?" You're extremely pretty, Dr. Sattler," he said. "I could look at your legs all day. But no, as a matter of fact, black is an excellent color for heat. If you remember your black-body radiation, black is actually best in heat. Efficient radiation. In any case, I wear only two colors, black and gray." Ellie was staring at him, her mouth open. "These colors are appropriate for any occasion," Malc..
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Michael Crichton |
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1e953a8
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This is the gift of your species and this is the danger, because you do not choose to control your imaginings. You imagine wonderful things and you imagine terrible things, and you take no responsibility for the choice. You say you have inside you both the power of good and the power of evil, the angel and the devil, but in truth you have just one thing inside you - the ability to imagine.
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Michael Crichton |
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13f9e82
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Power is neither male or female.
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Michael Crichton |
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06f8998
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But now science is the belief system that is hundreds of years old. And, like the medieval system before it, science is starting not to fit the world any more. Science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a ..
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Michael Crichton |
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cb5c2d7
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Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree.
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Michael Crichton |
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425491d
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Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other.
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science
psychology
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Michael Crichton |
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aa055f4
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Friendships are nice. So is competence.
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Michael Crichton |
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b52e383
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A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. They'll say, 'You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?' They'll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer better fantasies... And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That's the sea. That's real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That's all real. Life is..
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science
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Michael Crichton |
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49d1c88
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Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can't be given away : it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline.
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jurassic-park
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Michael Crichton |
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3dd6f71
|
Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes -- with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience...
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Michael Crichton |
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433a212
|
Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.
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Michael Crichton |