“The viruses that co-opt the machinery of our cells; the stories we allow to enter and explain us.”

— James Richardson

#27
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The viruses that co-opt the machinery of our cells; the stories we allow to enter and explain us." by James Richardson?

James Richardson 89

American poet 1950

Related quotes

“We humans have always defined ourselves by narration. What's happening today is that we're allowing multi-national corporations to tell our stories for us.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

The Syntax of Sorcery (2012)
Context: We humans have always defined ourselves by narration. What's happening today is that we're allowing multi-national corporations to tell our stories for us. The theme of corporate stories (and millions drink them in every day) seldom varies: to be happy you must consume, to be special you must conform. Absurd, obviously, yet our identities have become so fragile, so elusive, that we seem content to let advertisers provide us with their version of who we are, to let them recreate us in their image: a cookie-cutter image based on market research, shallow sociology, and insidious lies. Individualism is bad for business – though absolutely necessary for freedom, progressive knowledge, and any possible interface with the transcendent. And yes, it's entirely possible to function as a free-thinking individual without succumbing to narcissism..

“My upbringing does not allow me to take a life… When we go against nature then everything becomes dangerous; human beings too become dangerous. On the other hand, if we co-operate with nature, then she also co-operates with us.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

Quoted in Bear Grylls impressed with Modi’s 'humility'; says PM calm during crisis, agreed to sit in homemade raft https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/bear-grylls-impressed-with-modis-humility-says-pm-calm-during-crisis-agreed-to-sit-in-homemade-raft/articleshow/70615908.cms Bear Grylls
2019

“Richard Heffner: You say "We can create ourselves and our future"
Salk: — by shaping our selves not our cells — thats the important distinction. … We are shaping our cells, but we will not change our selves in the course of shaping our cells.”

Jonas Salk (1914–1995) Inventor of polio vaccine

The Open Mind interview (1985)

“Listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. We are made from stories.”

Mia Couto (1955) Mozambican writer

“Ironically, many of the people who are critics today were among those we called half-steppers, who had co-opted by "the man" because they were part of the system that oppressed us. When the revolution came, all of the so-called Negroes needed to be dealt with.”

Clarence Thomas (1948) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

1990s, I Am a Man, a Black Man, an American (1998)

“Our examination of computer viruses leads us to the conclusion that they are very close to what we might define as "artificial life." Rather than representing a scientific achievement, this probably represents a flaw in our definition.”

Gene Spafford (1956) American computer scientist

"Computer Viruses: A Form of Artificial Life?" (invited contribution); Artificial Life II, Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, vol. XII, eds. D. Farmer, C. Langton, S. Rasmussen, and C. Taylor; Addison-Wesley; pp. 727–747; 1991.