Words matter. These are the best David Brin Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Transparency is key to reciprocal accountability, which we use to be both free and smart. It is the miracle tool that enables us to question the lies of monsters.
Those who use ‘Correlation is not the same as causation’ as a magic incantation to dismiss all fact-using professions are fools holding a lit match in one hand and an open gas can in the other, screaming, ‘One has nothing to do with the other!’
The Enlightenment diamond-shaped society, with a huge, prosperous, socially-mobile, empowered middle class, is by far the most productive and creative system the world has ever seen.
Strutting and preening is, in fact, the surest sign of an inferiority complex.
I consider Yoda to be just about the most evil character that I’ve ever seen in the history of literature.
My education and background thoroughly inform my writing.
I find humans tremendously interesting.
Only a knowledgeable, empowered and vocal citizenry can perform well in democracy.
Why must conversions always come so late? Why do people always apologize to corpses?
Not all SF or fantasy has to inspire new scientists and engineers.
For every Steven King, there are a dozen guys like me who make a good living. For every David Brin, there are a dozen authors who have managed to make it their day job. For each of them, there are a dozen more for whom writing is a terrific supplement.
Whenever I see a new film, I deliberately tune down several ‘dials’ in my mind – critical faculties associated with logic, plotting, science – just so I can retain some ability to enjoy a flick in the spirit it’s offered.
Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.
We already live a very long time for mammals, getting three times as many heartbeats as a mouse or elephant. It never seems enough though, does it?
Liberal interventions that enable all children to shoot for their potential aren’t just moral, they are pragmatic – any society that wastes talent to poverty or oppression isn’t just evil: it is stupid.
The greatest hypocrisy on the planet right now is for those who defend capitalism to not be in favor of radical transparency, for all of us to know who owns everything. And that is my militant, radical, moderate, pro-capitalist, pro-Enlightenment, ferocious stand.
Human beings are inherently misled into subjective fantasies, but there’s a saving grace. We all have different delusions. Other people don’t necessarily share yours, and hence they will help you penetrate yours through the miracle of criticism!
She had called in the debt that parents owe a child for bringing her, unasked, into a strange world. One should never make an offer without knowing full well what will happen if it is accepted.
As a fellow science fiction author, Heinlein largely raised me, and I resent it when some folks lazily dismiss Heinlein as a ‘right winger’ or even ‘fascist.’
In the book, America had already been weakened by bio terror plagues before waves of selfish violence took down the rest. But the real enemy was the kind of male human being who nurses fantasies of violent glory at the expense of his fellow citizens.
Anything done in secret is more likely to result in terrible errors.
The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions. It often proved fatal.
When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.
But honestly, if you do a rigorous survey of my work, I’ll bet you’ll find that biology is a theme far more often than physical science.
Historically, central planners have generally done a poor job of managing economic resources – this we’ve known since the time of the Pharaohs.
My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea.
Science fiction is the field that explores how change can affect us, for well or ill.
When we see a strong correlation, and the matter at-hand is something with major health or safety or security implications, then we are behooved to at least begin taking preliminary precautions in case the correlation proves to be causative.
Fortunately, human beings are remarkably diverse models to work from.
But it is a delightful challenge to try to depict interesting aliens.
