Vernor Vinge
Computer scientist and science fiction author, as well as a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics.
It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing.
So high, so low, so many things to know.
We can solve many problems thousands of times faster than natural selection. Now, by creating the means to execute those simulations at much higher speeds, we are entering a regime as radically different from our human past as we humans are from the lower animals.
The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century.
Sometimes the biggest disasters aren’t noticed at all—no one’s around to write horror stories.
The voice was gentle, like a scalpel petting the short hairs of your throat.
Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and least expensive manipulation of all.
If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.
Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.