I absolutely loved this collection of stories. Inspiring, beautiful, not-so-sci-fi that it was disconnected from our world.
What I also loved about these stories is that they made me think about my own world and and I wanted to share these conversations and thoughts with those around me.
I think my favourite story was 'Story of Your Life' (made in to the film The Arrival) closely followed by 'Tower of Babylon'. But even the short short, 'The Evolution of Human Science' was superb, right down to the very first opening paragraph!
20 Highlight(s)
'You are the ones who are to dig through the vault of heaven?' 'We are.'
For the first time, he knew night for what it was: the shadow of the earth itself, cast against the sky.
To look up or down was frightening, for the reassurance of continuity was gone; they were no longer part of the ground.
It was as if they lay against each other, though they were separated by many leagues. How could that be? How could such distant places touch?
Penetrating computer security is really quite dull; I can see how it might attract those who can't resist a challenge to their cleverness, but it's not intellectually aesthetic at all. It's no different than tugging on the doors of a locked house until you find an improperly installed lock.
I'm reminded of the Confucian concept of ren: inadequately conveyed by 'benevolence,' that quality which is quintessentially human, which can only be cultivated through interaction with others, and which a solitary person cannot manifest.
With pheromones and muscle tension, I can cause another person to respond with anger, fear, sympathy, or sexual arousal. Certainly enough to win friends and influence people.
during the party he saw her smile twice and frown once; at those moments, her entire countenance assumed the expression as if it had never known another.
If a man's wife were suddenly afflicted with mental illness, it would be a sin for him to leave her, but a forgivable one. To stay would mean accepting a different kind of relationship, something which not everyone was cut out for, and Carl never condemned a person in such a situation.
One of the sailors pointed to the animals that hopped around with their young riding in pouches, and asked an aborigine what they were called. The aborigine replied, 'Kanguru.' From then on Cook and his sailors referred to the animals by this word. It wasn't until later that they learned it meant 'What did you say?' I tell that story in my introductory course every year. It's almost certainly untrue,
I remember a conversation we'll have when you're in your junior year of high school.
What I'll think is that you are clearly, maddeningly not me. It will remind me, again, that you won't be a clone of me; you can be wonderful, a daily delight, but you won't be someone I could have created by myself.
I can't believe that you, a grown woman taller than me and beautiful enough to make my heart ache, will be the same girl I used to lift off the ground so you could reach the drinking fountain, the same girl who used to trundle out of my bedroom draped in a dress and hat and four scarves from my closet.
'I think what I propose is more accurately described as a restoration than a disruption.'
Every study on this issue turns up the same results: looks help people get ahead. We can't help but think of good-looking people as more competent, more honest, more deserving than others. None of it's true, but their looks still give us that impression. Calli doesn't blind you to anything; beauty is what blinds you. Calli lets you see.
How? The way any drug becomes a problem: by interfering with our relationships with other people.
If those scientists could come up with some way to turn off the jerk circuit in guys' brains, I'd be all in favor of that.
This is classic PR: hide behind a nice-sounding name, and create the impression of a third party looking out for the consumer's interests.
I've always liked young people's willingness to fight for their beliefs. That's one reason I've never really believed in the cliché that youth is wasted on the young.
William Gibson once said, 'The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed.'