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4e88e0a
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Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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cac6115
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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?"
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science
big-bang
double-standards
materialism
id
macro-evolution
macroevolution
intelligent-design
religious-science-fiction
darwinism
theism
theistic-science-fiction
naturalism
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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21e6e8d
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Naturally, one does not normally discuss plans to commit murder with the intended victim.
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murder
killers
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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3cfa16e
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It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design."
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science
coincidenc-e
fine-tuning
id
intelligent-design
religious-science-fiction
theism
theistic-science-fiction
chance
naturalism
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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6712e49
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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?
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evolution
morality
infidelity
macro-evolution
macroevolution
social-darwinism
survival-of-the-fittest
theft
darwinism
natural-selection
stealing
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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b118912
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I learned that you can't choose the ways in which you'll be tested.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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8a4826a
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No one disputes that seeming order can come out of the application of simple rules. But who wrote the rules?
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science
intelligent-design
religious-science-fiction
theism
theistic-science-fiction
naturalism
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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1076995
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Not darkness, for that implies an understanding of light. Not silence, for that suggests a familiarity with sound. Not loneliness, for that requires knowledge of others. But still, faintly, so tenuous that if it were any less it wouldn't exist at all: awareness. Nothing more than that. Just awareness--a vague, ethereal sense of being. Being . . . but not becoming. No marking of time, no past or future--only an endless, featureless now, and,..
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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a6e9a7d
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Secrecy was the problem; transparency the obvious cure.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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c5dd1b5
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The sky above the island was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel--which is to say it was a bright, cheery blue.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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b952f1f
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You really did uplift me. You gave me the perspective and point of view and focus I needed to become truly conscious. Without you, I wouldn't exist.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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596d3e9
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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.
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evolution
science
darwinism
darwin
natural-selection
neo-darwinism
speciation
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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c7046da
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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."
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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540dd14
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As laser-bright moments; diamond-hard memories; crisp and clear. A future lived, a future savored, a future of moments so sharp and pointed that they would sometimes cut and sometimes glint so brightly it would hurt to contemplate them, but sometimes, too, would be joyous, an absolute, pure, unalloyed joy, the kind of joy he hadn't felt much if at all lo these twenty-one years.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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bbf3d99
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All right," he said. "Since you asked, Webmind is an emergent quantum-computational system based on a stable null-sigma condensate that resists decoherence thanks to constructive feedback loops." He turned to the blackboard, scooped up a piece of chalk, and began writing rapidly. "See," he said, "using Dirac notation, if we let Webmind's default conscious state be represented by a bra of phi and a ket of psi, then this would be the einselec..
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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afdadbb
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Free will is not always the most important thing
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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0571d2c
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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.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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84fd144
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And Wolfram knows about cellular automata?" "Oh, my goodness, yes," said Anna. "He wrote a book you could kill a man with--twelve hundred pages--called A New Kind of Science. It's all about them." "We should totally ask him what he thinks!" Caitlin said."
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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657dde2
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Mr. Lockery--my biology teacher--says if dinosaurs were magically brought forward in time today, we'd have nothing to worry about. Dogs, wolves, and bears would make short work of tyrannosaurs." She nodded at Schrodinger, who was now padding across the floor in the opposite direction. "Big cats, too. They're faster, tougher, and brighter than anything that existed seventy million years ago. Everything is always ramping up, always escalating..
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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ee9ce22
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There is no debt between people who are in love; there is only total forgiveness, and going forward.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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99201e0
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Sentir la necesidad de convencer a los demas de que uno tiene razon es algo que procede de la religion. Yo simplemente me contento con saber que tengo razon, aunque los demas no lo sepan.
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religion
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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5056776
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retire-or-expire
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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59680ba
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Gone. and it was completely. Everyone I'd every known, every place I'd ever been. My Mother. My father. Rebecca. Out of site. Out of mind.
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loss
gone
mindscan
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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8d3efcc
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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.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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9ccb6c2
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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.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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2870423
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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 ..
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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354ac4c
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Our manna trees are a copy of the magnificent plants created by Light in Paradise--but a poor copy indeed. Light's creation was topped by thousands of gracious, lacy things that swayed in the breeze and made whispering noises while they enjoyed constant communion with the Almighty. They drank of His energy and used it in such a manner as to mix the water they drank with bits of soil and with the air that men and animals breathed out. And th..
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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79d5a19
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You know, it's funny. If someone attacked you with a knife and scarred you, the courts would assess the physical damage--how long a scar, how many stitches it took to close the wound, whatever--and they'd come up with a figure that you'd be entitled to in compensation. But hurting someone with words that they'll always remember? With an act they'll never forget? That's physical damage, too--it changes you just as permanently as a scar. But ..
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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410214d
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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?"
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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febb57c
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Es nuestra concepcion de la muerte lo que determina nuestras respuestas a todas las preguntas que la vida nos plantea.
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vida
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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f311ab8
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La apreciaba por lo que era, no por lo que parecia.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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a7257bc
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Kayla replied, 'And we---or the p-zeds, at any rate---copy indiscriminately, without reflection. And if the person they're coyping is a psychopath, then their behavior ends up being de facto psychopathic, too.' ""
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science-of-mind
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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771dbdf
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neurotransmitters, a paramecium
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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7c3556d
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To use the human metaphor, it would be like trying to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. It can't be done.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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c8e47d5
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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.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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046ebd5
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El unico tipo de infierno que puedo concebir --dijo Espiritu-- es pasar por la eternidad sin que se formen nuevas conexiones; sin ver las cosas de forma nueva; sin divertirse por el absurdo de la economia, de la religion, de la ciencia, del arte. Todo es muy, muy divertido, si lo piensas bien.
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infierno
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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5346cf1
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By your time, life had been evolving on Earth for four billion years. But there are Earth-descended life-forms in this time that are products of fourteen billion years of evolution. You'll never believe what daisies evolved into--or sea anemones, or the bacteria that caused whooping cough. In fact, I had lunch a few days ago with someone who evolved from whooping-cough bacteria.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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0d3cece
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My Canada includes Quebec--but its license plates no longer call it La belle province. I can't remember what they say now.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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c9c81b5
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Adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs, advertisers modify the truth.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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9555fe7
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Failing to act is a decision in and of itself.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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a77ac9a
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Throwing some light on the subject had only made the mystery deeper.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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e65de79
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Jag barked dismissively. "Philosophy," he said. "Not science. They just want to believe that."
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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a988ec2
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but there, because there is no grace of God, go I.
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Robert J. Sawyer |
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39ad5b3
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He cursed himself for thinking anything this complex would end up not being a source of problems.
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Robert J. Sawyer |