(Crank theories) always violated the first rule of a scientific model: they were uncheckable. Gregory Benford More Quotes by Gregory Benford More Quotes From Gregory Benford Genre pleasures are many, but the quality of shared values within an ongoing discussion may be the most powerful, enlisting lifelong devotion in its fans. Gregory Benford quality fans powerful devotion In temperate zones, winter is the best insecticide; it keeps the bugs in check. The tropics enjoy no such respite, so plants there have developed a wide range of alkaloids that kill off nosy insects and animals. Gregory Benford plants best enjoy winter Very little useful science got done in the space station. NASA never did the experiments needed to develop the technologies required for a genuine interplanetary expedition: centrifugal gravity to avoid bodily harm and a truly closed biosphere. Gregory Benford never space done science The earliest depiction of libertarian eugenics may have appeared in a science fiction novel, Robert Heinlein's 1942 tale 'Beyond This Horizon.' Gregory Benford beyond horizon science fiction Enzymes - plainly the most important biotechnology of our era - already permeate many industrial processes. Unlike fossil fuels, they carry chemical programming which drives complex reactions, are renewable, and work at ordinary pressures and temperatures. Gregory Benford carry programming important work As a literature of change driven by technology, science fiction presents religion to a part of the reading public that probably seldom goes to church. Gregory Benford technology change science religion Indeed, the history of 20th century physics was in large measure about how to avoid the infinities that crop up in particle theory and cosmology. The idea of point particles is convenient but leads to profound, puzzling troubles. Gregory Benford avoid measure physics history Invoking nature with its implied supremacy ignores that many cultures have fundamentally differing ideas of even what nature is, much less how it should work. Gregory Benford how nature work ideas Virtuality - connection without proximity - is a major attraction in both fandom and the Net. Nobody knows you're a dog through the U.S. mail, either. Fans could be utterly different in their fanzine persona, which may be why both fandom and the Net were invented by individualistic Americans. Gregory Benford nobody you fans dog We have a name for people who create universes - they're called gods. There is no greater hubris than to think that we could take the place of godlike implications. Gregory Benford name place think people Seeing the space future through science fiction can be difficult. Much science fiction of the early era, the 1950s through the '70s, took an expansionist view. Gregory Benford view future space science Experience shows that if you put more ethicists on a problem, you can end up with more problems. Gregory Benford problems end you experience The Matrix itself is not some external evil, but rather an outcome of our own error, our karmic payoff of past actions. Not merely illusion, it is an allusion to a founding myth of our culture. Gregory Benford illusion evil culture past Mathematics cannot handle physical quantities like density that literally go to infinity. Gregory Benford cannot go like mathematics My brother Jim and I shared a womb without a view for nine months. Gregory Benford without view womb brother Reared in rural southern Alabama, we enjoyed an idyllic Huck Finn boyhood. But education there was casual at best. Our mother and father were high school teachers and challenged the pervasive easy-going ignorance. Gregory Benford best mother education father