Quotes About Complexity

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

The technology is good and it's bad. You know what you're dealing with out there musically, but my head stops at this electronic stuff. I don't quite know what I'm dealing with out there yet.

All men contain several men inside them, and most of us bounce from one self to another without ever knowing who we are.

Language, then, not simply as a list of separate things to be added up and whose sum total is equal to the world. Rather, language as it is laid out in the dictionary: an infinitely complex organism, all of whose elements […] are present in the world simultaneously, none of which can exist on its own. For each word is defined by other words, which means that to enter any part of language is to enter the whole of it

Intellectuals suck, Nathan. They are the most boring people in the world.

You can't hate something so violently unless a part of you also loves it.

One of the odd things about being himself ... was that there seemed to be several of him, that he wasn't just one person but a collection of contradictory selves, and each time he was with a different person, he himself was different as well.

New York was an inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps, and no matter how far he walked, no matter how well he came to know its neighborhoods and streets, it always left him with the feeling of being lost.

The great spectacle of human crookedness. It keeps coming at you from all sides, and whether you like it or not, it's the most interesting show in town.

Toda vida es inexplicable. Por muchos hechos que se cuenten, por muchos datos que se muestren, lo esencial se resiste a ser contado.

Chicas medio locas, ambas deslumbrantes y autodestructivas, profundamente excitantes para ti, pero apenas llegabas a entenderlas. Las inventabas. Las utilizabas como ficticias encarnaciones de tus propios deseos, dejando de lado sus problemas e historias personales, sin comprender quiénes eran al margen de tu propia imaginación, y sin embargo, cuanto más te eludían, más apasionadamente las deseabas.

Tout cela devient assez compliqué, je m'en doute, mais en réalité le personnage de Brill ne faisait pas, à l'origine, partie de mon plan. Le cerveau créateur de la guerre devait appartenir à quelqu'un d'autre, un autre personnage inventé, aussi peu réel que Brick et Flora, Tobak et tout le reste, mais plus j'avançais, mieux je comprenais à quel point je me bernais moi-même.

De obicei la lucrurile complicate-s bun. Alea simple m? cam încurc în ele.

Germans either want to kill you or fuck you.

They find man a paradoxical being; one capable of descent into the darkest abysses of evil, and yet equally capable of ascent to the sublimest heights of nobility. They

We live in a rainbow of chaos.

In our analysis of complex systems (like the brain and language) we must avoid the trap of trying to find master keys. Because of the mechanisms by which complex systems structure themselves, single principles provide inadequate descriptions. We should rather be sensitive to complex and self-organizing interactions and appreciate the play of patterns that perpetually transforms the system itself as well as the environment in which it operates.

To blithely say "it could have happened" that a life-permitting, life-producing, and life-sustaining universe is the product of chance is naive. It fails to take seriously all that is required to get from "zero" to a single-celled organism to Homo sapiens.

God created an awesome world. God intentionally loaded the world with amazing things to leave you astounded. The carefully air-conditioned termite mound in Africa, the tart crunchiness of an apple, the explosion of thunder, the beauty of an orchid, the interdependent systems of the human body, the inexhaustible pounding of the ocean waves, and thousands of other created sights, sounds, touches, and tastes—God designed all to be awesome. And he intended you to be daily amazed.

The way life manages information involves a logical structure that differs fundamentally from mere complex chemistry. Therefore chemistry alone will not explain life's origin, any more than a study of silicon, copper and plastic will explain how a computer can execute a program.

Met het verleden in mijn hand als een papiertje harlekijn, wanneer je aan het koordje trekt schieten armen en benen in beweging, je kan het ene niet stilleggen zonder het andere, op beklemmende wijze zit alles als een raderwerk met mekaar in verband.

To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.

Smiles are probably the most underrated facial expressions, much more complicated than most people realize. There are dozens of smiles, each differing in appearance and in the message expressed.

In the spider-web of facts, many a truth is strangled.