Search the Archive

"He’d expected torture. He hadn’t expected surgery."

"Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense..."

"Only a fool wasted energy on things he could not control."

"Thus we can see that if we take solipsism seriously - if we assume that it is true and that all valid explanations must scrupulously conform to it - it self destructs. How exactly does solipsism, take…"

"The next chapter is likely to provoke many mathematicians. This can't be helped. Mathematics is not what they think it is."

"Huygens, there are times when I take comfort in my sinful nature, for it means I’ll meet you in hell. I’ll be the one stomping on your jewels with singular dedication."

"Sometimes the contortions required to spit on Occam’s razor were just as disturbing as the insights one yearned to avoid."

"Necessary truth is merely the subject-matter of mathematics, not the reward we get for doing mathematics. The object of mathematics is not, and cannot be, mathematical certainty. It is not even mathem…"

"Mathematical knowledge may, just like our scientific knowledge, be deep and broad, it may be subtle and wonderfully explanatory, it may be uncontroversially accepted; but it cannot be certain."

"The development of the nation is intimately linked with understanding and application of science and technology by its people."

"The grotesque machine reassembled its head. The medical servitor stood, emitted a burst of ticktock cog chatter, then flung itself into the massacre with the fervor of a religious zealot."

"First, the fact he awoke at all. Cogito, ergo how the hell aren’t I dead?"

"He informed the whole of his team about any new project and started working on it only after having discussed with everyone."

"Since building a universal virtual-reality generator is physically possible, it must actually be built in some universes."

"“Absence of proof,” said Bell, “is not proof of absence."

"A prediction, or any assertion, that cannot be defended might still be true, but an explanation that cannot be defended is not an explanation."

"It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every possible environment."

"The Discrete and the Continuous"

"He didn’t trust them. But he did trust their greed."

"They were old enough to know such things were forbidden, yet young enough still to find the forbidden irresistible rather than terrifying."

"We’ve drawn attention to ourselves with our obsessive need to stay inconspicuous."

"And, as was so often the case, the history taught to children was oversimplified, watered down, and ofttimes counterfactual."

"Prof Sarabhai assessed the work capacity of an engineer or a scientist not by his degree or his training but by his self-confidence."

"The fallacy of your personal bias is inherent in your choice of words."

"The truly privileged theories are not the ones referring to any particular scale of size or complexity, nor the ones situated at any particular level of the predictive hierarchy—but the ones that cont…"

"He always gave new technical knowledge to the engineers and at that moment his face was lit with joy."

"I’ve learned to be wary when something makes you this excited."

"Surely it is more interesting to argue about what the truth is, than about what some particular thinker, however great, did or did not think."

"To say that prediction is the purpose of a scientific theory is to confuse means with ends. It is like saying that the purpose of a spaceship is to burn fuel. … Passing experimental tests is only one …"

"Prof Sarabhai had the keen desire that Indian must be independent in rocket manufacturing\, hence he always full of zeal to do something new."

"“If you’re going to insist on giving perfectly logical and reasonable answers to stupid questions,” she said, “you may put a dent in my delusions of genius."

"We look down on our scientists if they engage in outside consultation. We implicitly promote the ivory tower."

"The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from arcane theoretical considerations. It is the explanat…"

"But the speculation was pointless. The past was forever in the past."

"Quantum computation is … nothing less than a distinctly new way of harnessing nature … It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel univer…"

"He said that failures compos us more as compared to successes."

"Perhaps there really was a God, and He was just as cruel as the humans He made in His form."

"Alchemy was useful but never compassionate."

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced na…"

"A national programme which would provide television to about 80% of India’s population during the next ten years would be of great significance to national integration, for implementing schemes of eco…"

"He said that if we want to establish ourselves in the world, we have to be self-sufficient and research for new ideas and techniques."

"Time travel may be achieved one day, or it may not. But if it is, it should not require any fundamental change in world-view, at least for those who broadly share the world view I am presenting in thi…"

"To lose the satchel now would prove that God, if He existed, was a truly sadistic son of a bitch."

"It isn’t courtly politics if somebody doesn’t get a dagger in the back."

"Such were the brittle threads of a relationship built not on trust but on a slurry of fear, mutual codependence, and self-interest."

"“It’s a debate,” he spat, “over truth. Which truth is more true? The inspiring myth or the bleak, blood-caked reality?"

"He who can listen to the music in the midst of noise can achieve great things."

"The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests."

"As I understand it, the claim is that the less you use Homeopathy, the better it works. Sounds plausible to me."

"Every additional second the king didn’t take a bullet in the eye seemed a good sign."

"How could you comprehend things whose existence you doubt?"

"He never deviated even in adverse situations, instead he accepted that to err or to forget something in order to learn something is not an offense."

"I would like to emphasize that security can be endangered not only from outside but also from within. If you do not maintain the rate of progress of the economic development of the nation. I would sug…"

"No great importance is to be given to mere experience."

"He said that the performer must have emotional attachment with the project along with physical;otherwise one can’t attain dedication and devotion for it."

"He was such a genius that he could very quickly solve any problem. He ws in the habit of giving new tips to young engineers. To keeo normal even in adverse situations was his natural features."

"Your family excels at being a pain in my ass. Are you certain you’re not part Dutch?"

"It’s not my fault your makers made you humorless."

"How are moral assertions connected with the world of facts?"

"You’re no stranger to spinning gold from the hay of human misery, are you?"