Beyond the Veil
Context: The reason which placed the stars, the sense of proportion which we recognize in the planetary system, finds its correspondence in this brain of ours. We question every feature of what we see, think, and feel. We try every link of the chain and find it sound if we ourselves are sound. This power of remotest question and assent is not of to-day nor yesterday.
It transcends all bounds of time and space. It weighs the sun, explores the pathway of the stars, and writes, having first carefully read, the history of earth and heaven. It moves in company with the immortals. How much of it is mortal? Only so much as a small strip of earth can cover. These remains are laid away with reverence, having served their time. But what has become of the wonderful power which made them alive? It belongs to that in nature which cannot die.
“Our eyes are always flashing sudden flicks of different pictures to our brains, yet none of that saccadic action leads to any sense of change or motion in the world; each thing reposes calmly in its "place!"”
...What makes us such innate Copernicans?
Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)
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Marvin Minsky 65
American cognitive scientist 1927–2016Related quotes
Source: The Stars in their Courses (1931), p. 3.
1970s, The argument: causality in the electric world (1973)
“The world is a big place and our brain is only three pounds.”
"A Conversation with R. Scott Bakker, Part I" http://www.wotmania.com/fantasymessageboardshowmessage.asp?MessageID=141281, wotmania.com, 2005-11-01 (accessed 2006-04-14)
2000s, 2001, Address to Joint Session of Congress on Administration Goals (February 2001)