Right now, scientists are in exactly the same position as Renaissance painters, commissioned to make the portrait the patron wants done, And if they are smart, they'll make sure their work subtly flatters the patron. Not overtly. Subtly.

At forty, I was too old to work as a programmer myself anymore; writing code is a young person’s job.

And that's how things are. A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. . . . And at the end of your life, your whole existence has the same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.

I believe my life has a value, and i don't want to waste it thinking about clothing. I don't want to think about what i will wear in the morning. Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion?

You know, at times like this one feels, well, perhaps extinct animals should be left extinct.

It is especially difficult for modern people to conceive that our modern, scientific age might not be an improvement over the prescientific period.

Science is the business of generating testable hypotheses.