Quotes About Progress

Tyrena did not laugh again but her smile slashed upward in a twist of green lips. "Martin, Martin, Martin," she said, "the population of literate people has been declining steadily since Gutenberg's day. By the twentieth century, less than two percent of the people in the so-called industrialized democracies read even one book a year. And that was before the smart machines, dataspheres, and user-friendly environments.

that evolution is not progress, that there is no 'goal' or direction to evolution. Evolution is change. Evolution 'succeeds' if that change best adapts some leaf or branch of its tree of life to conditions of the universe.

Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity." "Empathy," Aenea said softly.

Despite our fatal addiction to the toys granted us by our own creations.

We've been stuck in one species since our Cro-Magnon ancestors helped to wipe out the smarter Neanderthals

We have made some progress, thought Gladstone, despite the inertia forced upon us by the Core. Despite the near-death of science. Despite our fatal addiction to the toys granted us by our own creations.

Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity." "Empathy," Aenea said softly. Father Glaucus turned his blind eyes in her direction. "Precisely, my dear.

Barbarians, we call them, while all the while we timidly cling to our Web like Visigoths crouching in the ruins of Rome's faded glory and proclaim ourselves civilized. Within

I can tolerate anything, in dog or man, save for the refusal or inability to learn.

Despite the near-death of science. Despite our fatal addiction to the toys granted us by our own creations.

During this time I quit attending classes at the university, and my grades rose from four Fs to three Bs and an A.

the population of literate people has been declining steadily since Gutenberg's day. By the twentieth century, less than two percent of the people in the so-called industrialized democracies read even one book a year. And that was before the smart machines, dataspheres, and user-friendly environments.

It's wonderful to preserve tradition, but a healthy organism evolves Ã¢â'¬Â¦ culturally and physically.

We are in a comfortable Dark Ages of the inventive mind; institutions change but little, and that by gradual evolution rather than revolution; scientific research creeps crablike in a lateral shuffle, where once it leaped in great intuitive bounds; devices change even less, plateau technologies common to us would be instantly identifiable – and operable! – to our great-grandfathers.

Every time I believe I know one of these men or officers, I find that I am wrong. A million years of Man's Medicinal progress will never reveal the secret condition and sealed compartments of the Human soul.

there's still room for writing that holds out some hope for humanity.

ameliorative. He climbed

dreams are all that separates us from the machines

Apparently, using two spaces after a period has become anachronistic. But tell that to my right thumb. —

Adjectives have become verbs: I favorited it. Verbs have become nouns. How many likes do you have? Time is moving at such an accelerated rate that completing sentences now seems baroque.

For years we had the persistent sensation in our life and art - John Updike's phrase - that we were just beginning.

She'd also read up on neuroplasticity. Theo had always lagged behind, in terms of his emotional agility

I was in the middle of my second novel and struggling. Instead of engagement, I felt a nagging worry. Had I lost my way? Maybe I had taken a wrong turn—but where? One afternoon, I met a friend of mine, a poet and novelist, for coffee. "I feel like I'm in a boat in the middle of the ocean and there's no land in sight," I told him. He took a sip of his drink and peered at me over his glasses. "Yeah," he said. "And you're building the boat.

There is no such thing as a good decision and a bad decision. There are only decisions. Make them, fuck up, enjoy, repeat.