“Psychopathy's no disorder in those shoes, eh? Just a survival strategy.” — Peter Watts Psychopath Copy Share Image
“You can’t turn a sunset into a string of grunts without losing something.” — Peter Watts Language Copy Share Image
If the rest of your brain were conscious, it would probably regard you as the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert — Peter Watts Boss Copy Share Image
Tools exist for only one reason: to force the universe into unnatural shapes — Peter Watts Physics Copy Share Image
“The game is never over; there's no finish line this side of heat death.” — Peter Watts Death Copy Share Image
People aren't rational. We're not thinking machines, we're - we're feeling machines that happen to think. — Peter Watts Computers Copy Share Image
“After four thousand years we can’t even prove that reality exists beyond the mind of the first-person dreamer.” — Peter Watts Dreamer Copy Share Image
If believing absurd falsehoods increase the odds of getting laid or avoiding predators, your brain will believe those falsehoods with all its… — Peter Watts Absurd Copy Share Image
“Maybe your empathy's just a comforting lie, you ever think of that? Maybe you think you know how the other person feels… — Peter Watts Cynicism Copy Share Image
This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: You hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the… — Peter Watts Copy Share Image
“So there’s a membrane of—of living tissue around that star,” I say, trying to wrap my head around the concept. “A, a… — Peter Watts Astronomy Copy Share Image
“The static’s nice. I could do without the screeching.” “Are you kidding? That’s the music of the spheres, commissar. It’s beautiful .… — Peter Watts Beautiful Copy Share Image
“Most people seem to think that organisms develop adaptive traits in response to environmental change. This is bullshit. The environment changes and… — Peter Watts Biology Copy Share Image
“I think I’ll call you Cygnus,” Chelsea said. “The swan?” I said. A bit precious, but it could have been worse. She… — Peter Watts Black hole Copy Share Image
“All this careful conservatism, these shackled environments that barely edged beyond the laws of physics—they only guarded against the Inner Heckler, not… — Peter Watts Conservatism Copy Share Image
“but you had a point about language. When you get right down to it, it’s a work-around. Like trying to describe dreams… — Peter Watts Dreams Copy Share Image
“Why’s a sticky word, though. It’s not especially productive to think of them as agents with agendas. Better to think of them… — Peter Watts Copy Share Image
Computers bootstrap their own offspring, grow so wise and incomprehensible that their communiqués assume the hallmarks of dementia: unfocused and irrelevant to… — Peter Watts Analysis Copy Share Image
Not even the most heavily-armed police state can exert brute force to all of its citizens all of the time. Meme management… — Peter Watts Copy Share Image
“My genes done gone and tricked my brain By making fucking feel so great That's how the little creeps attain Their plan… — Peter Watts Procreation Copy Share Image
“Technology is a stunted thing in benign environments, it never thrived in any culture gripped by belief in natural harmony. Why invent… — Peter Watts Environment Copy Share Image
“I brought her flowers one dusky Tuesday evening when the light was perfect. I pointed out the irony of that romantic old… — Peter Watts Copy Share Image
“The Zodiac had rearranged itself into a precise grid of bright points with luminous tails. It was as though the whole planet… — Peter Watts Fire Copy Share Image
Every concert pianist knows that the surest way to ruin a performance is to be aware of what the fingers are doing.… — Peter Watts Body Copy Share Image
“But only part of him was listening. Another part, even if it hadn't read Chomsky or Jung or Sheldrake—who had time for… — Peter Watts Collective unconscious Copy Share Image
Perfect hexagonal tubes in a packed array. Bees are hard-wired to lay them down, but how does an insect know enough geometry… — Peter Watts Copy Share Image
“Vampires did this all the time, you remember. It was normal for them, it was their own unique take on resource conservation.… — Peter Watts Time Copy Share Image
“Perhaps they'd been conditioned by all the quarantines and blackouts, all the invisible boundaries CSIRA erected on a moment's notice. The rules… — Peter Watts Civil liberties Copy Share Image
“Imagine you are Siri Keeton: You wake in an agony of resurrection, gasping after a record-shattering bout of sleep apnea spanning one… — Peter Watts Science fiction Copy Share Image
“Dystopia is not always an unhappy place. There are, as it happens, certain dystopias in which it's perfectly possible to be happy… — Peter Watts Dystopia Copy Share Image
“Now keep in mind, memories aren’t historical archives. They’re—improvisations, really. A lot of the stuff you associate with a particular event might… — Peter Watts History Copy Share Image
