The science fiction approach doesn't mean it's always about the future; it's an awareness that this is different. Neal Stephenson More Quotes by Neal Stephenson More Quotes From Neal Stephenson She looked at me like I was crazy. Most of my lovers do, and that's partly why they love me, and partly why they leave Neal Stephenson my-lover crazy lovers As convenient as it is for information to come to us, libraries do have a valuable side effect: they force all of the smart people to come together in one place where they can interact with one another. Neal Stephenson library smart people Interesting things happen along borders - transitions - not in the middle where everything is the same. Neal Stephenson transition borders interesting This is exactly how the World Wide Web works: the HTML files are the pithy description on the paper tape, and your Web browser is Ronald Reagan. Neal Stephenson html tape world It is easy to look at these waves, accomplishing so little and to think that no matter what efforts we put forth in our lives, all we're really doing is rearranging the sand grains in a beach that in essence never changes. Neal Stephenson essence beach thinking But they had, perversely, been living among people who were peering into the wrong end of the telescope, or something, and who had convinced themselves that the opposite was true - that the world had once been a splendid, orderly place...and that everything had been slowly, relentlessly falling apart ever since. Neal Stephenson opposites people fall The mind knows...that there is an action principle that governs how the world evolves from one moment to the next - that restricts our world's path to points that tell an internally consistent story. Neal Stephenson next our-world mind In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not at a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity : Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist. Neal Stephenson three trying looks A lot of secular, modern people claim to be disillusioned whenever they learn that any smart person is religious. That's applicable to Newton as it is to any other religious smart person Neal Stephenson smart religious people If the Coastal Republic had believed in the existence of virtue, it could at least have aspired to hypocrisy. Neal Stephenson republic virtue hypocrisy Two tires fly. Two Wail. A bamboo grove, all chopped down From it, warring songs. Neal Stephenson bamboo song two Hiro watches the large, radioactive, spear-throwing killer drug lord ride his motorcycle into Chinatown. Which is the same as riding it into China, as far as chasing him down is concerned. Neal Stephenson riding motorcycle drug Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor. Neal Stephenson opponents bombs aliens That's funny because if anyone actually did prove the existence of God we'd just tell him 'nice proof, Fraa Bly' and start believing in God. Neal Stephenson proof nice believe Of persons I will say this: it is difficult to tell when they are running aright but easy to see when something has gone awry. Neal Stephenson gone easy running Jad said, "The leakage was forcing choices, the making of which in no way improved matters." Okay. So we were, in effect, locked in a room with a madman sorcerer. That clarified things a little. Neal Stephenson choices matter littles Unix is not so much an operating system as an oral history. Neal Stephenson oral-history unix operating-systems Supposing that originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binary sexual relations come into being? Neal Stephenson relation ordinary supposing-that Leibniz is at the disadvantage of not having seen it. Or perhaps we should count this as an advantage, for anyone who sees it is dumbfounded by the brilliance of the geometry, and it is difficult to criticize a man’s work when you are down on your knees shielding your eyes. Neal Stephenson knees eye men Lawrence immediately saw that it was a trick question. You would have to be some kind of idiot to make the facile assumption that the current would add or subtract 5 miles per hour to or from the speed of the boat. Neal Stephenson idiot saws add