The fundamental premise of sci-fi is not spaceships and lasers - it's that children can learn from the mistakes of their parents. David Brin More Quotes by David Brin More Quotes From David Brin For all its beauty, honesty, and effectiveness at improving the human condition, science demands a terrible price - that we accept what experiments tell us about the universe, whether we like it or not. It's about consensus and teamwork and respectful critical argument, working with, and through, natural law. It requires that we utter, frequently, those hateful words - 'I might be wrong.' David Brin honesty teamwork law In all of history, we have found just one cure for error—a partial antidote against making and repeating grand, foolish mistakes, a remedy against self-deception. That antidote is criticism. David Brin errors self mistake It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. David Brin favourite corruption power Why must conversions always come so late? Why do people always apologize to corpses? David Brin carpe-diem apology inspiring Learn to control ego. Humans hold their dogmas and biases too tightly, and we only think that our opponents are dogmatic! But we all need criticism. Criticism is the only known antidote to error. David Brin ego errors thinking If an outsider perceives 'something wrong' with a core scientific model, the humble and justified response of that curious outsider should be to ask 'what mistake am I making?' before assuming 100% of the experts are wrong. David Brin humble experts mistake When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else. David Brin accountability literature people The measure of (mental) health is flexibility (not comparison to some 'norm'), the freedom to learn from experience ... to be influenced by reasonable arguments ... and the appeal to the emotions ... and especially the freedom to cease when sated. The essence of illness is the freezing of behavior into unalterable and insatiable patterns. David Brin patterns emotion essence In historical fact, all of history's despots, combined, never managed to get things done as well as this rambunctious, self-critical civilization of free and sovereign citizens, who have finally broken free of worshipping a ruling class and begun thinking for themselves. Democracy can seem frustrating and messy at times, but it delivers. David Brin self civilization thinking If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego. David Brin ego writing believe In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march. David Brin diplomats fighting needs If you have other things in your life-family, friends, good productive day work-these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer. David Brin family-friends family-life writing Beware of assumptions that seem "obvious" in one decade. They may become quaint in the next. David Brin assumption next may We already live a very long time for mammals, getting three times as many heartbeats as a mouse or elephant. It never seems enough though, does it? David Brin mammals elephants long There's no doubt that scientific training helps many authors to write better science fiction. And yet, several of the very best were English majors who could not parse a differential equation to save their lives. David Brin training doubt writing The village is coming back, like it or not. David Brin village coming-back community Self-righteous people can talk themselves into forgetting they are part of a civilization. They can then feed on that culture, bringing it down. It's happened many times in the past. It could happen to us. David Brin self civilization past Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting and watching (stalking), throwing with incredible accuracy and speed, sprinting, dodging... and hitting moving objects real hard with clubs! And arguing. Hey, what else could you possibly need? Now, tell me, how do soccer or basketball prepare you to survive in the wild, hm? David Brin basketball soccer sports Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on. David Brin age doe people Everything isn't subjective. Reality also matters. Truth matters. It is still a word with meaning. David Brin stills matter reality
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