Vernor Vinge Quotes (34 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Vernor Vinge

A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Vernor Vinge

Rainbows End

Vernor Vinge

Vernor Vinge: 34 quotes1 like

Famous Vernor Vinge Quotes

“So much technology, so little talent.”

Vernor Vinge book Rainbows End

Source: Rainbows End (2006)

“Sometimes the biggest disasters aren’t noticed at all—no one’s around to write horror stories.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 33 (p. 443).

“I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep

““I have come to kill you.”
The death’s heads shrugged. “You have come to try.””

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 39 (p. 555).

“So high, so low, so many things to know.”

Vernor Vinge book A Deepness in the Sky

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

“He claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind—but most everybody else agreed it made you daft.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 31 (p. 373).

Vernor Vinge Quotes about nature

“Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 32 (p. 397).

“Over the last few weeks, some newsgroups have been full of tales of war and battle fleets, of billions dying in the clash of species. To all such—and those living more peaceably around them—we say look out on the universe. It does not care, and even with all our science there are some disasters that we can not avert. All evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 35 (pp. 483-484).

“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.”

Vernor Vinge

The Coming Technological Singularity (1993)

Vernor Vinge Quotes

“Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.”

Vernor Vinge

The Coming Technological Singularity (1993)
Context: I have argued above that we cannot prevent the Singularity, that its coming is an inevitable consequence of the humans' natural competitiveness and the possibilities inherent in technology. And yet … we are the initiators. Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things. We have the freedom to establish initial conditions, make things happen in ways that are less inimical than others. Of course (as with starting avalanches), it may not be clear what the right guiding nudge really is...

“And now each second was as long as all the time before.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Prologue (p. 4).
A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)
Context: The hours came to minutes, the minutes to seconds. And now each second was as long as all the time before.

“How to explain? How to describe? Even the omniscient viewpoint quails.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Prologue (p. 1; opening words).
A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

“Hexapodia as the key insight...
I haven’t had a chance to see the famous video from Straumli Realm, except as an evocation. (My only gateway onto the Net is very expensive.) Is it true that humans have six legs?”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 18 (p. 226).

“We realize that this means the destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 14 (p. 161).
Context: If during the last thousand seconds you have received any High-Beyond-protocol packets from "Arbitration Arts," discard them at once. If they have been processed, then the processing site and all locally netted sites must be physically destroyed at once. We realize that this means the destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative. You are under Transcendent attack.

“If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 41 (p. 580).

“All his life he had lived by the law. Often his job had been to stop acts of revenge…. And now revenge was all that life had left for him.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 33 (p. 428).

“We've watched the Homo Sapiens interest group since the first appearance of the Blight. Where is this "Earth" the humans claim to be from? "Half way around the galaxy," they say, and deep in the Slow Zone. Even their proximate origin, Nyjora, is conveniently in the Slowness. We see an alternative theory: Sometime, maybe further back than the last consistent archives, there was a battle between Powers. The blueprint for this "human race" was written, complete with communication interfaces. Long after the original contestants and their stories had vanished, this race happened to get in position where it could Transcend. And that Transcending was tailor-made, too, re-establishing the Power that had set the trap to begin with.We're not sure of the details, but a scenario such as this is inevitable. What we must do is also clear. Straumli Realm is at the heart of the Blight, obviously beyond all attack. But there are other human colonies. We ask the Net to help in identifying all of them. We ourselves are not a large civilization, but we would be happy to coordinate the information gathering, and the military action that is required to prevent the Blight's spread in the Middle Beyond. For nearly seventeen weeks, we've been calling for action. Had you listened in the beginning, a concerted strike might have been sufficient to destroy the Straumli Realm. Isn't the Fall of Relay enough to wake you up? Friends, if we act together we still have a chance.Death to vermin.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), p. 245.

“Well, what do you know," Pham said. "Butterflies in jackboots.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 26 (p. 318).