---
title: "27 Years Quotes By Seth Shostak"
description: "27 Years quotes by Seth Shostak. Plus more from Seth Shostak and more Years sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/seth-shostak-2047_been_our-retinas-and-brains-have-been-wired-b_884996.jpg"
---

> [Our retinas and brains have been wired by a hundred million years of evolution to find outlines in a visually complex landscape.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/our-retinas-and-brains-have-been-wired-by-a-hundred-million-years-of/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/seth-shostak-2047_been_our-retinas-and-brains-have-been-wired-b_884996.jpg)

> [Any beings advanced enough to traverse interstellar distances are at least a thousand years beyond our technical level. Spending gobs of time…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/any-beings-advanced-enough-to-traverse-interstellar-distances-are-at/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b9d/seth-shostak-2047_advanced_any-beings-advanced-enough-to-traverse-i_3152816.png)

> [The stars look the same from night to night. Nebulae and galaxies are dully immutable, maintaining the same overall appearance for thousands…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/the-stars-look-the-same-from-night-to-night-nebulae-and-galaxies-are/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9e5/seth-shostak-2047_appearance_the-stars-look-the-same-from-night-to-ni_1892585.png)

> [We can no better imagine what will be happening on the moon 500 years from now than Columbus could imagine contemporary Manhattan.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/we-can-no-better-imagine-what-will-be-happening-on-the-moon-500-years/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b6/seth-shostak-2047_better_we-can-no-better-imagine-what-will-be-ha_531170.jpg)

> [Our computers double in capability on time scales of only a few years. It's hardly outrageous to believe that we will successfully…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/our-computers-double-in-capability-on-time-scales-of-only-a-few-years/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64e/seth-shostak-2047_artificial_our-computers-double-in-capability-on-ti_248626.png)

> [Clearly, unless thinking beings inevitably wipe themselves out soon after developing technology, extraterrestrial intelligence could often be millions or billions of years…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/clearly-unless-thinking-beings-inevitably-wipe-themselves-out-soon/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/seth-shostak-2047_advance_clearly-unless-thinking-beings-inevitabl_225150.jpg)

> [Even if the Moon didn't exist - even if it had been vaporized billions of years ago by cantankerous Klingons - there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/even-if-the-moon-didn-t-exist-even-if-it-had-been-vaporized-billions/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d1/seth-shostak-2047_been_even-if-the-moon-didn-t-exist-even-if-it_1595260.png)

> [We're hard-wired by 200,000 years of evolution to be sensitive to the idea that someone might be watching us. They might be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/we-re-hard-wired-by-200-000-years-of-evolution-to-be-sensitive-to-the/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8da/seth-shostak-2047_bus_we-re-hard-wired-by-200-000-years-of-evo_493241.jpg)

> [There is little chance that aliens from two societies anywhere in the Galaxy will be culturally close enough to really 'get along.'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/there-is-little-chance-that-aliens-from-two-societies-anywhere-in-the/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/326/seth-shostak-2047_aliens_there-is-little-chance-that-aliens-from_1273931.jpg)

> [Every day, the temperature of Sol's surface increases by five billionths of a degree, a change of no consequence for thousands of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/every-day-the-temperature-of-sol-s-surface-increases-by-five/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d6a/seth-shostak-2047_change_every-day-the-temperature-of-sol-s-surfa_1863337.jpg)

> [Mountains aren't eternal: even the most imposing massifs are smoothed away by weathering in a few hundred million years or less. Plate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/mountains-aren-t-eternal-even-the-most-imposing-massifs-are-smoothed/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ae2/seth-shostak-2047_away_mountains-aren-t-eternal-even-the-most-i_1533754.png)

> [Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that's the result…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/look-science-is-hard-it-has-a-reputation-of-being-hard-and-the-facts/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/seth-shostak-2047_18th-century_look-science-is-hard-it-has-a-reputation_42498.png)

> [Thanks to the fact that the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, and invoking a bunch of Newtonian physics, you can deduce that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/thanks-to-the-fact-that-the-earth-isn-t-a-perfect-sphere-and-invoking/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/04e/seth-shostak-2047_bunch_thanks-to-the-fact-that-the-earth-isn-t_1075565.png)

> [The bottom line is that the position of the Sun relative to the stars slowly changes for any given date, and over…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/the-bottom-line-is-that-the-position-of-the-sun-relative-to-the-stars/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/186/seth-shostak-2047_actually_the-bottom-line-is-that-the-position-of_974134.jpg)

> [In the four years since its launch, Kepler has chalked up 122 new and confirmed planets. It's also caught the scent of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/in-the-four-years-since-its-launch-kepler-has-chalked-up-122-new-and/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/af3/seth-shostak-2047_additional_in-the-four-years-since-its-launch-keple_2937583.jpg)

> [Charles Darwin sailed around the world for two years on the 'Beagle,' and he had quite a bit of interest in things…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/charles-darwin-sailed-around-the-world-for-two-years-on-the-beagle/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e8d/seth-shostak-2047_around_charles-darwin-sailed-around-the-world-f_618229.png)

> [Faith is a personal matter, and should never be a cudgel to stifle inquiry. We tried that approach about 1,200 years ago.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/faith-is-a-personal-matter-and-should-never-be-a-cudgel-to-stifle/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/05c/seth-shostak-2047_about_faith-is-a-personal-matter-and-should-ne_1252532.png)

> ['What was there before the Big Bang?' That's a question that both kids and adults love to pose to anyone who seems…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/what-was-there-before-the-big-bang-that-s-a-question-that-both-kids/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71d/seth-shostak-2047_adult_what-was-there-before-the-big-bang-that_1989830.png)

> [The Moon is a ball of left-over debris from a cosmic collision that took place more than four billion years ago. A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/the-moon-is-a-ball-of-left-over-debris-from-a-cosmic-collision-that/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/67a/seth-shostak-2047_asteroid_the-moon-is-a-ball-of-left-over-debris-f_2729068.jpg)

> [Our brains are continuing to evolve, and perhaps a few tens of thousands of years from now, our descendants will walk around…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/our-brains-are-continuing-to-evolve-and-perhaps-a-few-tens-of/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb4/seth-shostak-2047_allowing_our-brains-are-continuing-to-evolve-and_1911689.jpg)

> [While human space travel is daunting, machines - with their indefinitely long lifetimes - could travel the galaxy. It might make little…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/while-human-space-travel-is-daunting-machines-with-their-indefinitely/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b8/seth-shostak-2047_computers_while-human-space-travel-is-daunting-mac_3127199.png)

> [The Earth has been lawned with life for something over 3.5 billion years. That's a span of time great enough to encompass…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/the-earth-has-been-lawned-with-life-for-something-over-3-5-billion/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b4f/seth-shostak-2047_been_the-earth-has-been-lawned-with-life-for_947521.png)

> [Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/give-consideration-to-the-fact-that-alien-astronomers-could-have/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e1f/seth-shostak-2047_alien_give-consideration-to-the-fact-that-alie_49116.png)

> [I studied Latin in high school, and I was reading stuff from Cicero. And that signal took a few thousand years to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/i-studied-latin-in-high-school-and-i-was-reading-stuff-from-cicero/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22e/seth-shostak-2047_cicero_i-studied-latin-in-high-school-and-i-was_126366.png)

> [Consider: Life arose on Earth close to four billion years ago. Four billion years of slithering, swimming, and soaring life forms. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/consider-life-arose-on-earth-close-to-four-billion-years-ago-four/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/06e/seth-shostak-2047_able_consider-life-arose-on-earth-close-to-fo_2974962.png)

> [Despite tantalizing suggestions of fossilized microbes in meteorites, puzzling and possibly biogenic methane gas in the martian atmosphere, and a long-standing controversy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/despite-tantalizing-suggestions-of-fossilized-microbes-in-meteorites/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2f2/seth-shostak-2047_atmosphere_despite-tantalizing-suggestions-of-fossi_1683201.png)

> [Imagine if the dinosaurs had tried picturing the rulers of their planet 100 million years hence. They'd undoubtedly envision these creatures as...…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/imagine-if-the-dinosaurs-had-tried-picturing-the-rulers-of-their/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/514/seth-shostak-2047_alien_imagine-if-the-dinosaurs-had-tried-pictu_2797894.jpg)

## Other authors on Years

## More by Seth Shostak

> [Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable - research…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/studying-sol-s-interior-by-looking-for-analogous-patterns-on-its/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [Some pundits have proposed that the aliens have come here to breed with us. Apparently, too much bike riding or something similar has rendered…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/some-pundits-have-proposed-that-the-aliens-have-come-here-to-breed/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [As far as I can tell, the only unambiguous consequence of the claimed invasion of Earth by beings from another star system has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/as-far-as-i-can-tell-the-only-unambiguous-consequence-of-the-claimed/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that's the result of 400…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/look-science-is-hard-it-has-a-reputation-of-being-hard-and-the-facts/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio signals, despite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/give-consideration-to-the-fact-that-alien-astronomers-could-have/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [In a movie, it's often important to have aliens whose gestures and facial expressions can be 'read' by humans. And in the days before…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/in-a-movie-it-s-often-important-to-have-aliens-whose-gestures-and/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [Sure, nobody will make a fortune if we figure out why the Big Bang happened. But just about everyone would like to know.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/sure-nobody-will-make-a-fortune-if-we-figure-out-why-the-big-bang/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [If you could drive straight down, into a tunnel bored through the crust of the planet, you'd hit this molten mess in about an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/if-you-could-drive-straight-down-into-a-tunnel-bored-through-the/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [While I have always thought that the motivation for looking for E.T. was both self-evident and patently worthy, it's possible that I'm a victim…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/while-i-have-always-thought-that-the-motivation-for-looking-for-e-t/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [I studied Latin in high school, and I was reading stuff from Cicero. And that signal took a few thousand years to get to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/i-studied-latin-in-high-school-and-i-was-reading-stuff-from-cicero/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [About the only things that are unique to Earth are our biota and our culture. If aliens ever come here, they'd most likely be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/about-the-only-things-that-are-unique-to-earth-are-our-biota-and-our/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [This plucky NASA telescope is able to find planets en masse. If you compare planet hunting to prospecting for gold, then Kepler is equivalent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/this-plucky-nasa-telescope-is-able-to-find-planets-en-masse-if-you/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [The most attractive habitats for synthetic sentience might be the vicinities of exceptional sources of energy - for example black holes, or even the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/the-most-attractive-habitats-for-synthetic-sentience-might-be-the/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [Buying insurance is no one's idea of fun. And it's especially easy to berate something as funky-sounding as writing checks to defend our neighborhoods…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/buying-insurance-is-no-one-s-idea-of-fun-and-it-s-especially-easy-to/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

> [Plate tectonics is not all havoc and destruction. The slow movement of continents and ocean floors recycles carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/plate-tectonics-is-not-all-havoc-and-destruction-the-slow-movement-of/)

[Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/)

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                        "text": "We can no better imagine what will be happening on the moon 500 years from now than Columbus could imagine contemporary Manhattan. Except to say that it will be a place familiar to billions of people.",
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                        "text": "Our computers double in capability on time scales of only a few years. It's hardly outrageous to believe that we will successfully develop thinking machines within a handful of decades, or at most a century or two. If that happens, these artificial sentients will quickly leave us behind.",
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                        "text": "Clearly, unless thinking beings inevitably wipe themselves out soon after developing technology, extraterrestrial intelligence could often be millions or billions of years in advance of us. We're the galaxy's noodling newbies.",
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                        "text": "Even if the Moon didn't exist - even if it had been vaporized billions of years ago by cantankerous Klingons - there would still be (somewhat lower) tides raised by the Sun. For creatures dependent on the oceans' ebb and flow, life could go on.",
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                        "text": "We're hard-wired by 200,000 years of evolution to be sensitive to the idea that someone might be watching us. They might be predators, after all. An uneasy feeling is perfectly natural if you suspect that someone has you in their ocular sights, whether it's a ghost or just some guy at the bus stop.",
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                        "text": "There is little chance that aliens from two societies anywhere in the Galaxy will be culturally close enough to really 'get along.' This is something to ponder as you watch the famous cantina scene in Star Wars. ... Does this make sense, given the overwhelmingly likely situation that galactic civilizations differ in their level of evolutionary development by thousands or millions of years? Would you share drinks with a trilobite, an ourang-outang, or a saber-toothed tiger? Or would you just arrange to have a few specimens stuffed and carted off to the local museum?",
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                        "text": "Every day, the temperature of Sol's surface increases by five billionths of a degree, a change of no consequence for thousands of millennia to come. But a few hundred million years from now, barring a fix by our descendants, this relentless heating will substantially change Earth's biosphere in ways that might not be survivable for us.",
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                        "text": "Mountains aren't eternal: even the most imposing massifs are smoothed away by weathering in a few hundred million years or less. Plate tectonics makes new ones, and without it, our future would be flat.",
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                        "text": "Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that's the result of 400 years of science, right? I mean, in the 18th century, in the 18th century you could become an expert on any field of science in an afternoon by going to a library, if you could find the library, right?",
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                        "text": "Thanks to the fact that the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, and invoking a bunch of Newtonian physics, you can deduce that our planet wobbles, too, taking roughly 26,000 years to trace out a small circle on the sky, a phenomenon known as precession.",
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                        "text": "The bottom line is that the position of the Sun relative to the stars slowly changes for any given date, and over the course of 26,000 years, it can easily slide between constellations. So you may think you're a Pisces, but you're actually an Aquarius.",
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                        "text": "In the four years since its launch, Kepler has chalked up 122 new and confirmed planets. It's also caught the scent of nearly three thousand additional objects, of which probably 80 percent or more will turn out to be other-worldly orbs.",
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                        "text": "Charles Darwin sailed around the world for two years on the 'Beagle,' and he had quite a bit of interest in things like the iguanas of the Galapagos, even though they were primitive compared to your average Englishman.",
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                        "text": "Faith is a personal matter, and should never be a cudgel to stifle inquiry. We tried that approach about 1,200 years ago. The experiment was called the Dark Ages.",
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                        "text": "'What was there before the Big Bang?' That's a question that both kids and adults love to pose to anyone who seems sympathetic. After all, if the universe has only been around for roughly 14 billion years, isn't it legitimate to ask what was in existence before the mother-of-all-events cranked up the cosmos?",
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                        "text": "The Moon is a ball of left-over debris from a cosmic collision that took place more than four billion years ago. A Mars-sized asteroid - one of the countless planetesimals that were frantically churning our solar system into existence - hit the infant Earth, bequeathing it a very large natural satellite.",
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                        "text": "The Earth has been lawned with life for something over 3.5 billion years. That's a span of time great enough to encompass some honest-to-goodness catastrophe. For example, 700 million years ago, Earth underwent a planet-wide deep freeze, with ice covering the oceans from the poles to the equator.",
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                        "text": "I studied Latin in high school, and I was reading stuff from Cicero. And that signal took a few thousand years to get to me. But I was still interested in what he had to say.",
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                        "text": "Consider: Life arose on Earth close to four billion years ago. Four billion years of slithering, swimming, and soaring life forms. But only in the last 200 thousand years has a species arisen that can fathom the laws of nature and build hardware able to signal its presence.",
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