Gregory Benford

To peer through the quick stubble of mathematics and see the wonders lurking behind was to momentarily live in the infinite, beyond the press of the ordinary world where everyone else dwelled in ignorance.

Einstein said that the only incomprehensible thing about the universe was that it was comprehensible. But resorting to God forgets what biology says—that our minds came out of the physical world, y’know, through evolution of early brain stems and neural systems to higher levels of complexity.

“Viktor! Don’t tell me you cheated! A gentleman doesn’t cheat at cards.”

“Am captain, not gentleman.”

Science was a systematic way to avoid fooling yourself, after all.

Whole world is sitting on ass, watching glorious Twenty-first century on TV.

The barely awake public, trained to the attention span of a commercial, thought that science had two children: either consumer yummies, served up by the handmaiden of technology, or else awesome wonders like the beauties of astronomy. The unsettling side they largely ignored, unless for the momentary shock value of, say, swollen insects doing disgusting things. But the root promise of science was of a world unshaped by humans. The expanses of time and space that stretched out from the human community were terrifying, and most avoided even thinking of them.

“It was just good luck, last minute luck.”

“Your ‘luck’ was mostly sweat and intuition.”

One of the better aspects of aging was that she no longer practiced dragging on cigarettes before the mirror, striving to get the right dissipated look, or tried on sunglasses until she found the kind the latest hip singer wore. Had she really worn those mirrorshades? Perfect holdovers from the Me Decade, because they let the viewer watch himself.

He’s an order of magnitude better than mere diplomats. He’s a conniver.

Media bloomed with florid discussions between completely uninformed people about every detail imaginable.

After weeks of indoor work it actually felt good to be doing something—clean, direct, muscles and mind.

That’s absurd. This is real life, not some tabloid fantasy.