Like that's the only reason anyone would ever buy a first-aid kit? Don't take this the wrong way, Professor McGonagall, but what sort of crazy children are you used to dealing with?" "Gryffindors," spat Professor McGonagall, the word carrying a freight of bitterness and despair that fell like an eternal curse on all youthful heroism and high spirits.
Eliezer YudkowskyMoore's Law of Mad Science: Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point.
Eliezer YudkowskyThe human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths does not multiply by ten the strength of our determination to stop it. It adds one more zero on paper for our eyes to glaze over.
Eliezer YudkowskyLet the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can.
Eliezer YudkowskyAnd someday when the descendants of humanity have spread from star to star, they wonโt tell the children about the history of Ancient Earth until theyโre old enough to bear it; and when they learn theyโll weep to hear that such a thing as Death had ever once existed!
Eliezer Yudkowsky