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Charles Stross

Charles Stross Quotes

Writer

Charles Stross is a British science fiction writer born on October 18, 1964. His works are known for their profound philosophical thinking and unique science fiction settings, covering a range of topics from artificial intelligence to political intrigue and time travel.

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Famous Charles Stross Quotes

“You'll still get guys with an array of badges to demonstrate their importance, but that just excludes people. I think fandom is more inclusive now.”

People Thinking Stills Guy Importance Badges Fandoms

Author:Charles Stross

“The programmers have another saying: 'The question of whether a machine can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.'”

Thinking Interesting Machines Swim Programmers Submarines

Book:Rule 34

Source: Rule 34

“I'm a fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberal, and I think fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberalism is an ideological stance that needs defending-if necessary, with a hob-nailed boot-kick to the bollocks of budding totalitarianism.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Warm Kicks Liberalism Boots Hearted Totalitarianism Ideological Stance Fuzzy Warm Hearted

Author:Charles Stross

“The one thing that does happen, every time, though, is that I never get to write a book until I've already been thinking about it for a period of months to years.”

Thinking Writing Years Doe Book Happens One Thing Months Periods

Author:Charles Stross

“I have no policy, for or against: only a personal style. Which is to say, I use them when I think it's appropriate to; for example, an internal monologue by a locquacious and verbose narrator is more likely to be larded with adverbs than an exchange of instant messages between cops at a crime scene.”

Thinking Use Style Crime Policy Example Scene Messages Instant Appropriate Internals Cop Monologues Narrators Personal Style Adverbs

Author:Charles Stross

“I don't think most of my opinions, political or social, are so far outside of the mainstream that they'd cause massive outrage on a scale liable to provoke death threats or referrals to prosecutors for outraging public decency, so why worry?”

Thinking Political Social Causes Opinion Worry Threat Scales Massive Mainstream Provoking Decency Outrage Liable Prosecutor Referrals

Author:Charles Stross

“The problem with ebook filesharing is simply one of scale. But I think the "piracy" problem is massively over-rated.”

Thinking Problem Scales Piracy

Author:Charles Stross

“Back in the pre-internet age there were pirate publishers, especially in the third world, who would print physical copies of books, sell them, and never inform the author/their agent/their publisher just trousering the money. I think we can agree that this was piracy?”

Thinking World Book Age Internet Thirds Agree Sells Agents Copies Print Publishers Pirate Third World Piracy

Author:Charles Stross

“What I really think is that our current model of copyright is fundamentally broken. We badly need to replace it with a different system for remunerating creators, which gets it the hell out of the face of the public (who were never aware of it to begin with in the pre-internet dead tree era). Unfortunately, the current copyright model is enshrined in international trade treaty law, making it almost impossible to work around.”

Thinking Needs Different Faces Law Hell Impossible Tree Broken Internet Models Trade International Currents Creator Eras Treaties Copyright International Trade Dead Trees Law Making

Author:Charles Stross

“I suspect losing paper maps but gaining GPS and online maps is a similar step function: maps still exist, but they're vastly more useful, not to say permanently up to date, in their new form. Again, I won't be shedding any tears, but I'll keep a paper road atlas in the back of my car for another few years, I think, Just In Case.”

Thinking Years Stills Form Steps Cases Car Tears Paper Losing Function Online Maps Suspects Atlas Up To Date Gps

Author:Charles Stross

“I tend to think that immortal souls, invisible sky daddies, and Santa Claus all belong in the same basket. The disposition of that basket is left as an exercise for the reader.”

Thinking Soul Left Sky Reader Exercise Invisible Immortal Disposition Daddy Santa Baskets Santa Claus Immortal Soul

Author:Charles Stross

“Most people think spies are afraid of guns, or KGB guards, or barbed wire, but in point of fact the most dangerous thing they face is paper. Papers carry secrets. Papers carry death warrants. Papers like this one, this folio with its blurry eighteen year old faked missile photographs and estimates of time/survivor curves and pervasive psychosis ratios, can give you nightmares, dragging you awake screaming in the middle of the night.”

“I was raised thinking that moral and ethical standards are universals that apply equally to everyone. And these values aren't easily compatible with the kind of religion that posits a Creator. To my way of thinking, an omnipotent being who sets up a universe in which thinking beings proliferate, grow old, and die (usually in agony, alone, and in fear) is a cosmic sadist.”

Thinking Way Kind Values Dies Universe Grows Moral Standards Raised Creator My Way Ethical Cosmic Agony Way Of Thinking Compatible Omnipotent Ethical Standards

Book:The Fuller Memorandum

Source: The Fuller Memorandum

About the Author

Born: October 18, 1964
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 152

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