Machines can only find what ignorant men have programmed them to find. Poul Anderson More Quotes by Poul Anderson More Quotes From Poul Anderson My knowledge of the human psyche is as yet imperfect. Certain areas won't yield to computation. Poul Anderson imperfectyieldstatistics Will none wipe the sneer off the face of the cosmos? Poul Anderson cosmoswipescience The fish that first ventured ashore had considerable practical problems. Poul Anderson fishesproblemfirsts Two lives met across death and centuries. To ask what it meant is meaningless. There is no destiny. But sometimes there is bravery Poul Anderson destinybraverytwo Heaven is not as narrowly literal-minded as hell. Poul Anderson literalhellheaven I wrote the first book, Harvest of Stars, and as I was writing it, I saw that certain implications had barely been touched on... It's perfectly obvious that two completely revolutionary things are going on, with cybernetics, and biological science. Poul Anderson starswritingbook Better a life like a falling star, brief bright across the dark, than the long, long waiting of the immortals, loveless and cheerlessly wise. Poul Anderson starswisefall Anybody can find infinite Mandelbrot figures in his navel. Poul Anderson navelinfinitefigures In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program. Poul Anderson machinesstarspersonality Why do people in this age think their own impoverished lives must be the norm of the universe? Poul Anderson stupiditypeoplethinking At each stage...entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one. Poul Anderson creativityinspirationscience It is a truism that the structure of a society is basically determined by its technology. Not in an absolute sense-there may be totally different cultures using identical tools-but the tools settle the possibilities; you can't have interstellar trade without spaceships. A race limited to a single planet, possessing a high knowledge of mechanics but with its basic machines of industry and war requiring a large capital investment, will inevitably tend toward collectivism under one name or another. Free enterprise needs elbow room. Poul Anderson technologynameswar I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way did not become still more complicated. Poul Anderson seeproblemcomplicatedway
