Quotes from Gregory Benford

One could copy a Self without knowing what it was. Just record it, like a musical passage; the machine which did that did not need to know harmony, structure.

He loves it all anyway, as his first life as a teenager never allowed. Everything is different this time. On Sundays his mother's lengthy grace doesn't grate on him. This time he savors each one At high school he recalls who wrote poetry in Klingon, who sold dope, who was really gay and thought nobody knew. Friends, long forgotten by his late forties. As they pass by him again, he has a sad appreciation of how fleeting it all is.

It's a hard man who's only just, and a sad man who's only wise.

One of the polar explorers, the one who got to the South Pole first, Shackleton

We're more interested in the editor of this Astounding Science Fiction. General Groves sent me to ask that someone who knows more about this work you're doing interview this"—he glanced at a card—"John W. Campbell.

Y'know, I keep track of our subscribers—over a hundred and fifty thousand of them. We've been getting a lot of changes of address these last few years—to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, plus Hanford, Washington." Riley shot back, "Which means?" "Most of our readers are scientists and engineers. They're going places I never heard of, lots of 'em." For

Karl wondered how many scientists read this science fiction stuff. Maybe they couldn't get good books out in New Mexico?

The war had funneled men and women into familiar channels. Anton's girls were performing their impressions of what girls were supposed to be like.

Karl was seventeen when Joseph dwindled away, and somebody told him that was Hamlet's age when his father died too.

Military history is the story of the terrible murder of beautiful plans by ugly facts.

English officer came striding across the field quite deliberately. He stopped, saluted with a ramrod spine, and said, "Arthur Clarke. I gather you're the men who brought us those superbombs. I'd like to shake your hands." Karl found him an agreeable fellow, a bit younger and brimming with ideas.

To Memor philosophy was like a blind being searching a dark room for an unknown, black beast. When philosophy verged into theology, it was like the same predicament, but the black beast did not even exist.

At ten kilohertz?

In science fiction, basic doubts featured prominently in the worlds of Philip K. Dick. I knew Phil for 25 years, and he was always getting onto me, a scientist. He was a great fan of quantum uncertainty, epistemology in science, the lot.

Aging is mostly the failure to repair.

Dinner at college high table is one of the legendary experiences of England. I could remember keenly each one I had attended; the repartee is sharper than the cutlery.

When Joseph Wambaugh writes about the LAPD, you listen because you know he knows the scene. Lots of people write cop novels, but they don't have that authenticity.

As we all saw in grade school, once you learn how to read a book, somebody is going to want to write one - that's how authors are made. Once we know how to read our own genetic code, someone is going to want to rewrite that 'text,' tinker with traits - play God, some would say.

'Star Trek' is notorious for looting the more thoughtful work of writers for their striking effects, leaving behind most of the thought and subtlety.

Indeed, the history of 20th century physics was in large measure about how to avoid the infinities that crop up in particle theory and cosmology. The idea of point particles is convenient but leads to profound, puzzling troubles.

Will searching for distant messages work? Is there intelligent life out there? The SETI effort is worth continuing, but our common-sense beacons approach seems more likely to answer those questions.

In temperate zones, winter is the best insecticide; it keeps the bugs in check. The tropics enjoy no such respite, so plants there have developed a wide range of alkaloids that kill off nosy insects and animals.

Star Trek's insight lay in the promise of going to the stars together, with well-defined stereotypes who could supply the emotional frame for the potentially jarring truths of these distant places.

It turns out that if you optimize the performance of a car and of an airplane, they are very far away in terms of mechanical features. So you can make a flying car. But they are not very good planes, and they are not very good cars.