Sentences We Love

[UncleDuke]

is there life after birth?

[NatCh]

Okay, after such deep life discussions, the classic demands to be aired: "There's no intelligent life down here."

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

"Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic." — Arthur C. Clarke

[Gravitas]

my fave opening sentence to a book;

There was a god awful cockup in Bologna.

from The Danger by Dick Francis. I can't remember much about the rest of the book, but that line has stuck with me for years.

[Adam B.]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

"Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic." — Arthur C. Clarke

I've always loved that quote...

"Have you ever noticed that crazy people don't think they're crazy? I'm talking about the run-of-the-mill wackos who populate your day. They think they're "quirky" or "high-maintenance" or "perfectionists," but they rarely realize they are nuts." - Scott Adams

[JSWolf]

"He's Dead Jim" — Dr. Leonard McCoy

[mogui]

My Chinese wife is a constant source of delight to me. Her imperfect English results in many cute utterances:

We were walking in Jinan and eating roasted chestnuts from a bag. Rose is very fastidious and was putting the shells in another bag. I was being a bit clumsy and dropping small portions of the shells on the already-littered sidewalk. She took the chestnut from my hand saying, "Here! You're stupid! let me help you!"

Another time we were planning to go out for the evening. I asked if she was ready to go. It was still light outside and too early for her so she said, "No. Let's wait until the weather is dark."

[alex_d]

oh, whoa, I didn't notice. Goo expats! I'm in shanghai now. Still can't speak chinese tho... :-( Haha, but what the hell is "offering retirement choices for men" supposed to mean?


and about the arthur c. clarke quote... it's so not true. Noone thinks about magic. Moreover, noone these days understand anything about how their technology works. If you show someone something "sufficiently advanced" they'll either say "oh, that's like in the Matrix" OR "cool, they should put that in the next Matrix." A better quote would be, "our technology is already sufficiently advanced that people don't think, notice, or care about the difference between technology and magic."

[astra]

My favorite (usually I use it as a personal signature, maybe I will do it here too):

Only Two Things Are Infinite, The Universe and Human Stupidity, and I'm Not Sure About The Former.

Albert Einstein.

[mogui]

It is easier to imagine magical effects, that we understand to be technological, in the context of virtual reality where we would have control over the machinery of reality. Perhaps in time, we will discover that we live in a "data universe", a vast program comprised of us and everything else. Then we would be confronted with the question of the nature of the computer.

Clarke was elucidating the perceived difference between a primitive race, such as ourselves, and a galactically ancient one. Year by year our technology becomes more powerful and less visible.

If we met a technology that was beyond our comprehension both in terms of design and use, would we believe it to be technology?

One of my favorite sentences: Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. My Chinese students like it too.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Even people who know little about technology, have at least a general understanding of what is "possible" given their understanding of the state of technology. Today people are exposed to so much technological advancement that it may be hard to imagine something that technology cannot someday accomplish.

What Clarke was hinting at is something so far beyond what a person believes is possible, given any stretch of technology that they can possibly imagine, that they are incapable of seeing it as anything but "magical," or in essence, "Godlike" power. Don't think of simple mechanical concepts, like moving planets about... think in terms of "willing existence into being" and "sculpting time."

(Never thought I'd be explaining Arthur C. Clarke quotes...)

[NatCh]

"Any technology that is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
-- some smart-aleck geek or other, I expect


This discussion reminds me of the scene in the Disney version of Aeauty and the Beast where the inventor father (Maurice) encounters Lumiere and Cogsworth, and doesn't think, "Oh, that must be magical," but rather starts trying to figure out "How is this accomplished?"

[alex_d]

My point was the people take for granted the fact that they don't understand technology. I think at one point in time there was a clear distinction between technology and "magic." Technology was simple and understandable: making iron horseshoes and weaving. Maybe pushing a piston using steam. Now technology isn't limited like that, and authors like Arthus C. Clarke and special effects wizards in Hollywood have helped to make us feel already blase about technology that probably won't even ever exist.

We take for granted that technology has no limits, that it's not even limited by our imagination. The only possible limit that still exists is our comprehension and perception.

However, the quote wasn't "there are some technologies that are so advanced we'd be blind to them, incapable of even being aware of them in any meaningful capacity."

His quote said something entirely different, that _any_ technology sufficiently advanced will make us act like cavemen being shown a lighter... running around ooing, aahing, unable to get over the fact that we don't know how it works.

All our technology is already indistinguishable from magic, and we are all wizards: not caring how it works, only interested in knowing what spell to utter to get it to do something. If you show us new spells with new powers, we won't be shocked at all.

"Any technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic" is just a meaningless, irrelevant sentence.

[mogui]

Originally Posted by alex_d

"Any technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic" is just a meaningless, irrelevant sentence.

Let us not forget the many who attach firm credence to causation of the metaphysical variety.

Engineers use oscilloscopes. A signal can be displayed as referenced to ground (DC mode), or referenced only to itself (AC mode). In our thinking we like to believe we are reasoning from fundamentals -- that we operate in DC mode. In actuality our logical systems cannot define themselves and we are forever denied the comfort of objective reality.

We are fundamentally AC. Behaviorists show that any of us are subject to the development of "superstitious behaviors" that derive from causal chains that are not consciously examined. Though the operations of the brain derive their workings from the laws of physics, the brain's end results are not representative of any absolutes.

[mogui]

I have been having a few problems with posts showing up incomplete after I have saved them. I am using Firefox. Please indicate if you are having this problem too and what your configuration is.

Here is the complete post that should have appeared above:

Originally Posted by alex_d

"Any technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic" is just a meaningless, irrelevant sentence.

Let us not forget the many who attach firm credence to causation of the metaphysical variety.

Engineers use oscilloscopes. A signal can be displayed as referenced to ground (DC mode), or referenced only to itself (AC mode). In our thinking we like to believe we are reasoning from fundamentals -- that we operate in DC mode. In actuality our logical systems cannot define themselves and we are forever denied the comfort of objective reality.

We are fundamentally AC. Behaviorists show that any of us are subject to the development of "superstitious behaviors" that derive from causal chains that are not consciously examined. Though the operations of the brain derive their workings from the laws of physics, the brain's end results are not representative of any absolutes.

We are fallible. We are still capable of incomprehension to the extent that we may doubt our reality if and when faced with something sufficiently extraordinary. Clarke was right and will remain so for a long time.