Quotes from Douglas E. Richards

How often did people consider the wonder of their own construction? Pause to reflect on the miracle of a DNA blueprint inside a single fertilized egg capable of directing the creation of an entire human being? Not just trillions of cells working in concert, but a hundred billion neurons somehow managing to become a vessel for consciousness.

There was a long silence, during which Hall seemed lost in thought. "Who knows," he mused finally, almost to himself. "Maybe you've got some Neanderthal DNA in you somewhere.

she whispered through the pain,

he had no time to waste. He guessed he had been out for as long as a few

Winston Churchill had once famously pointed out that nothing in life was as exhilarating as being shot at without result.

The neural structure of our brains is constantly changing. So why do we think we can achieve AGI using immovable components?

The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it." —John Ruskin, English Poet, Art Critic

Most people are sheep. Stupid and uninformed. And they don't dig. They don't think for themselves. They'll trust a sincere voiceover and whatever the television tells them. But even if they dig, they have no intuition for statistics anyway. Even experts can be fooled.

He had read a description of the life of a novelist, and decided his life wasn't too far different. Writing is easy, Gene Fowler had famously observed. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself." —Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Because of a steel shortage brought about by war preparations

Looks were nice in the beginning, but intelligence, stimulating conversation, empathy, loyalty, humility, and chemistry were the key for a relationship to go to the next level.

The easiest way for you to make sense of this is to imagine that you're a two-dimensional being. A being flatter than the flattest pancake, living on the surface of a giant, empty, plastic box. As a 2D being, you can only see the surface of the

In most jobs, one learned from one's mistakes. Unfortunately, in our job, a single mistake usually led to a swift death, and corpses were notoriously stubborn when it came to learning from bad experiences.

Great," I said, rolling my eyes. "We'll get the chance to know what it feels like to be an ear of corn as a thick cloud of locusts approach.

Probably a serial killer, she thought to herself.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge." —Rod Serling, excerpted from The Twilight Zone, opening narration, season one

I never thought I'd have sex with an extraterrestrial.

Would extraordinarily advanced alien beings really traverse this unimaginable gulf just to blast patterns in our cornfields, mutilate our cows, and probe our anuses? Surely they'd have better things to do.

Nick, no matter what, we'll find a way to cure you of your

kangaroos. They were technically nocturnal

If anything was universally accepted as the hallmark of humanity, it was the insatiable curiosity at the heart of the species. But would this insatiable curiosity cost them everything?

It would be faster," said Boyd, "but more conspicuous

If a duplicate is identical, not only in structure,