29 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Science as a Religion
"On the contrary. That was the time to begin all-out prevention of war. I
played them one against the other. I helped each in turn. I offered them
science, trade, education, scientific medicine. I made Terminus of more
value to them as a flourishing world than as a military prize. It worked
for thirty years."
"Yes, but you were forced to surround these scientific gifts with the most
outrageous mummery. You've made half religion, half balderdash out of it.
You've erected a hier...28 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
With Warm-Bloodedness Comes Freedom
Pelorat said, "Tortoises are cold-blooded. Terminus doesn't have any, but some worlds do. They are shelled creatures, very slow-moving but long-living.”
"Well, then, isn't it better to be a human being than a tortoise; to move quickly whatever the temperature, rather than slowly? Isn't it better to support high-energy activities, quickly contracting muscles, quickly working nerve fibers, intense and long-sustained thought-than to creep slowly, and sense gradually, and have only a blurred a......but it is costly, requiring much more fuel.