Vernor Vinge: Humanity

Vernor Vinge is American mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction writer. Explore interesting quotes on humanity.
Vernor Vinge: 68   quotes 1   like

“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'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.

Way , Communication , Appearance , Help

“"Poor humans; they will all die."
"Poor us; we will not."”

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

Prologue (p. 2).
A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

“Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”

Vernor Vinge

The Coming Technological Singularity (1993)

Intelligence

“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)

Nature , Problem , Time , Past

“The work that is truly productive is the domain of a steadily smaller and more elite fraction of humanity.”

Vernor Vinge

The Coming Technological Singularity (1993)