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Neal Stephenson

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Famous Neal Stephenson Quotes

“"Sorry," she said, "I got out as fast as I could, but I had to stay and socialize. Protocol, you know." "Explain protocol," Nell said. This was how she always talked to the Primer. "At the place we’re going, you need to watch your manners. Don’t say 'explain this' or 'explain that.'" "Would it impose on your time unduly to provide me with a concise explanation of the term protocol?" Nell said. Again Rita made that nervous laugh and looked at Nell with an expression that looked like poorly concealed alarm.”

KnowsNeedsMadeSaidTermWatchesLaughingExpressionSorryNervousMannersExplanationAlarmsConcealedProtocolConcise
Author:Neal Stephenson
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“Ares always reemerges from the chaos. It will never go away. Athenian civilization defends itself from the forces of Ares with metis, or technology. Technology is built on science. Science is like the alchemists' uroburos, continually eating its own tail. The process of science doesn't work unless young scientists have the freedom to attack and tear down old dogmas, to engage in an ongoing Titanomachia. Science flourishes where art and free speech flourish.”

ArtYoungForceProcessTechnologyTearsCivilizationSpeechEatingBuiltScientistChaosGoing AwayDogmaFree SpeechTailsOngoingAlchemistAthenians
Author:Neal Stephenson
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“The GPS unit became almost equally obstreperous, though, over Richard’s unauthorized route change, until they finally passed over some invisible cybernetic watershed between two possible ways of getting to their destination, and it changed its fickle little mind and began calmly telling him which way to proceed as if this had been its idea all along.”

IfsWayMindLittlesTwoIdeasChangedInvisibleDestinationUnitsRoutesFickleLittle MindsGpsWatersheds
Book:Reamde
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“We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. Marxism. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information.”

IdeasSelfMatterInformationMassSmartJokesSpreadTunesLegendsHostIrrationalUrbanMarxismHysteriaSusceptibleHummingViralCrackpotsUrban LegendsMass Hysteria
Author:Neal Stephenson
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“When I read a novel that I really like, I feel as if I am in direct, personal communication with the author. I feel as if the author and I are on the same wavelength mentally, that we have a lot in common with each other, and that we could have an interesting conversation, or even a friendship, if the circumstances permitted it. When the novel comes to an end, I feel a certain letdown, a loss of contact. It is natural to want to recapture that feeling by reading other works by the same author, or by corresponding with him/her directly.”

IfsWantFeelsEndsFeelingsCertainReadingNaturalLossInterestingCommonNovelCommunicationCircumstancesConversationDirectContactCorrespondingWavelengthLetdownsInteresting Conversation
Author:Neal Stephenson
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“Of course, the underlying structure of everything in England is posh. There is no in-between with these people. You have to walk a mile to find a telephone booth, but when you find it, it is built as if the senseless dynamiting of pay phones had been a serious problem at some time in the past. And a British mailbox can presumably stop a German tank.”

PeopleIfsProblemPastCoursesWalksPaySeriousBuiltEnglandStructurePhonesBritishMilesTelephonesTanksPoshMailboxes
Author:Neal Stephenson
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“Like any place in Reality, the Street is subject to development. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one. They can build buildings, parks, signs, as well as things that do not exist in Reality, such as vast hovering overhead light shows and special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored.”

WellsShowsRealityLightThreeStreetsSpecialSubjectsBuildingDevelopmentParksNeighborhoodIgnoredFeedingOverheadDevelopersHoveringSpacetime
Author:Neal Stephenson
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