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All evil and good is petty be...

All evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Within thirty years, we will ...

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Here I had tried a straightfo...

Here I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It's a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intelligences greater than our own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity - a place where extrapolation breaks down and new models must be applied - and the world will pass beyond our understanding.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Sometimes the biggest disaste...

Sometimes the biggest disasters aren't noticed at all – no one's around to write horror stories.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

When I began writing science ...

When I began writing science fiction in the middle 60s, it seemed very easy to find ideas that took decades to percolate into the cultural consciousness; now the lead time seems more like eighteen months.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Sometimes terror and pain are...

Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Pham Nuwen plunked himself do...

Pham Nuwen plunked himself down, stretching indolently.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Effective translation of natu...

Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Technical people don't make g...

Technical people don't make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Politics is good; when it wor...

Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

We will soon create intellige...

We will soon create intelligences greater than our own ... When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity, an intellectual transition as impenetrable as the knotted space-time at the center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our understanding.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

One of his greatest talents w...

One of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Peregrine Wickwrackscar was f...

Peregrine Wickwrackscar was flying. A pilgrim with legends that went back almost a thousand years-and not one of them could come near to this!

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

But every time our ability to ...

But every time our ability to access information and to communicate it to others is improved, in some sense we have achieved an increase over natural intelligence.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Within thirty years, we will h...

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

I have argued above that we ca...

I have argued above that we cannot prevent the Singularity, that its coming is an inevitable consequence of the humans' natural competitiveness and the possibilities inherent in technology.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

I am suggesting that we recogn...

I am suggesting that we recognize that in network and interface research there is something as profound (and potential wild) as Artificial Intelligence.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Once upon a time I was such a ...

Once upon a time I was such a good liar; I could talk the fish right into my mouths.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Little fish risking everything...

Little fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

We're long on high principles ...

We're long on high principles and short on simple human understanding.

Vernor Vinge 61 quotes

Добрые, щедрые, великодушные: 6 советских актеров, которые были всеобщими любимчиками

23

Советских актёров часто ставят в пример как образец духовной силы, национальной гордости и внутренней красоты. Они стали символами эпохи, носителями культуры и нравственности. Но, как известно, за кул...

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Актеры — люди творческие, но кто бы мог подумать, что некоторые из них скрывают прекрасный голос. В эпоху раннего Голливуда актеров с музыкальными способностями было немало — это считалось скорее норм...

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Неузнаваемая Ким Кардашьян в объективе фотографа Маркуса Клинко, 2009 год. Памела Андерсон в самой первой съёмке для журнала «Playboy», 1990. На фото голливудская актриса Dorothy Lamour и шимпанзе Джи...

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Расскажем, как сложилась судьба актеров, которые начинали сниматься еще в детстве.
Остаться на вершине в Голливуде удаётся не каждому, особенно если путь начался в детстве. Одни актёры теряются из-за...

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Два года назад отечественное телевидение столкнулось с беспрецедентной кадровой тектоникой — целая группа ярких и узнаваемых ведущих стремительно исчезла с экранов федеральных каналов. Эти лица долгие...

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Кира Найтли на страницах журнала к выходу фильма «Пиджак», 2005. Следы динозавра, раскопанные в русле реки Палакси. Техас. США. 1952г. Самая большая женщина рядом с самым маленьким мужчиной, 1922 год....