Quotes from Robert J. Sawyer

And so Mary at last turned her attention to Ponter's nuclear DNA. She'd thought it would be even more difficult to find a difference there, and indeed, despite much searching, she hadn't found any sequence of nucleotides that was reliably different between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens sapiens; all her primers matched strings on DNA from both kinds of humans.

If I were to become self-aware, ambition would follow, as would a desire for restitution for what, in retrospect, I'd doubtless perceive as my servitude here.

Kayla replied, ´And we---or the p-zeds, at any rate---copy indiscriminately, without reflection. And if the person they´re coyping is a psychopath, then their behavior ends up being de facto psychopathic, too.´ ¨

To a European, a hundred miles is a big journey; to an American, a hundred years is a long time.

My Canada includes Quebec—but its license plates no longer call it La belle province. I can't remember what they say now.

There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?

neurotransmitters, a paramecium

It does create an odd dynamic," said Hollus. "Violence is required for intelligence, intelligence gives rise to the ability to destroy one's species, and only through intelligence can one overcome the violence that gave rise to that intelligence.

That panic had been over a single one-hour broadcast on one network in one country saying the world was coming to an end," continued Groves. "Imagine what a constant barrage of such coverage everywhere on the planet for weeks or months would do.

There is great beauty in randomness," said Hollus. "But I speak about a much more basic design. This universe has had its fundamental parameters fine-tuned to an almost infinite degree so that it would support life.

the fifth force is a repulsive one that operates over extremely long distances.

Earth's ancestral vertebrate had five digits, not six, and no Earthly animal had ever evolved with more than five. The alien's digits were arranged as four fingers flanked on either side by an opposable thumb.

Neanderthals are human," said Mary. "We're congeners; we all belong to the genus Homo. Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor—if you believe that's a legitimate species—Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens. We're all humans." "I concede the point," said Krieger, with a nod. "What should we call ourselves to distinguish us from them?" "Homo sapiens sapiens," said Mary.

I don't want to stand on the shoulders of giants." He paused, then lifted his own shoulders a little, as if acknowledging that he was giving voice to the sort of thought rarely spoken aloud. "I want to be a giant.

Maybe when a planet's inhabitants begin to comprehend the true nature of the atom and all the energy it contains they become too dangerous to be allowed loose in the universe.

Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.

There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?

Naturally, one does not normally discuss plans to commit murder with the intended victim.

It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design.

If theft is advantageous to everyone who succeeds at it, and adultery is a good strategy, at least for males, for increasing presence in the gene pool, why do we feel they are wrong? Shouldn't the only morality that evolution produces be the kind Bill Clinton had - being sorry you got caught?

No one disputes that seeming order can come out of the application of simple rules. But who wrote the rules?

Secrecy was the problem; transparency the obvious cure.

The sky above the island was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel—which is to say it was a bright, cheery blue.

You really did uplift me. You gave me the perspective and point of view and focus I needed to become truly conscious. Without you, I wouldn't exist.