Without us here to witness, the universe is just pointless physics unfolding. Daniel H. Wilson More Quotes by Daniel H. Wilson More Quotes From Daniel H. Wilson It's hard to wipe your eyes when you have whirring buzzsaws for hands. Daniel H. Wilson wipe eye hands Memories fade but words hang around forever. Daniel H. Wilson memories-fade forever memories If popular culture has taught us anything, it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace. Daniel H. Wilson taught-us robots culture Right now, we have the most complex relationship with technology that we've ever had. Your regular person has more technology in their life now than the whole world had 100 years ago. Daniel H. Wilson technology world years These days the technology can solve our problems and then some. Solutions may not only erase physical or mental deficits but leave patients better off than "able-bodied" folks. The person who has a disability today may have a superability tomorrow. Daniel H. Wilson able technology today Change creates fear, and technology creates change. Sadly, most people don't behave very well when they are afraid. Daniel H. Wilson wells technology people As a society, I think we express our cultural mores through our politics. We're trying constantly to figure out what's OK and what's not OK. And it's hard, because our society is constantly buffeted by gale force winds of technology. Things are always changing. Daniel H. Wilson technology wind thinking Zombies, vampires, Frankenstein's monster, robots, Wolfman - all of this stuff was really popular in the '50s. Robots are the only one of those make-believe monsters that have become real. They are really in our lives in a meaningful way. That's pretty fascinating to me. Daniel H. Wilson real meaningful believe ...humanity learns true lessons only in cataclysm. Daniel H. Wilson lessons humanity Each new generation builds on the work of the previous one, gaining new perspective. New verbs are introduced. We Google strange and dangerous places. We tweet mindlessly to the cosmos. We Facebook our own grandmothers. I, for one, don't want to be left behind. Daniel H. Wilson google grandmother perspective It is not enough to live together in peace, with one race on its knees. Daniel H. Wilson knees race together The goal for many amputees is no longer to reach a 'natural' level of ability but to exceed it, using whatever cutting-edge technology is available. As this new generation sees it, our tools are evolving faster than the human body, so why obey the limits of mere nature? Daniel H. Wilson cutting technology goal It's dangerous to be people-blind. Daniel H. Wilson dangerous blind people How much change can a person absorb before everything loses meaning Living for its own sake isn't life. People need meaning as much as they need air. Daniel H. Wilson air people needs No matter how much kids beg to be treated like adults, nobody likes to let go of their childhood. You wish for it and dream of it and the second you have it, you wonder what you've done. You wonder what it is you've become. Daniel H. Wilson dream letting-go kids Luckily, unreasonable expectations go hand in hand with naive young scientists. The more naive the better - otherwise we would never have the audacity to try and build a 22,000-mile-high space elevator or some sprawling underwater hotel. Daniel H. Wilson space expectations hands Robots should stand up for themselves and not try to be humans. They should either utterly destroy us or protect us from aliens. And vampires. And pirates. Daniel H. Wilson vampire pirate trying Sometimes a technology is so awe-inspiring that the imagination runs away with it - often far, far away from reality. Robots are like that. A lot of big and ultimately unfulfilled promises were made in robotics early on, based on preliminary successes. Daniel H. Wilson technology running reality For people who have been raised on text-based interactions, just speaking on the telephone can be high bandwidth to the point of anxiety. Daniel H. Wilson telephones anxiety people Robots are interesting because they exist as a real technology that you can really study - you can get a degree in robotics - and they also have all this pop-culture real estate that they take up in people's minds. Daniel H. Wilson technology real people
