Problems In Science Are Sometimes Made Easier

We Should Get Used To The Idea That We'll Probably Never Be Able To Find - And Confirm - A Good Explanation Of The Ultimate Origin Of The Universe, Though I See No Reason To Believe That We Can't Press Much Further On This Question Than We Have Managed To Date.

In Order To Make A Perfect And Beautiful Machine, It Is Not Requisite To Know How To Make It. All The Works Of Human Genius Can Be Understood In The End To Be Products Of A Cascade Of Generate-and-test Procedures That Are, At Bottom, Algorithmic And Mindless.

Those Who Feel Guilty Contemplating "betraying" The Tradition They Love By Acknowledging Their Disapproval Of Elements Within It Should Reflect On The Fact That The Very Tradition To Which They Are So Loyal—the "eternal" Tradition Introduced To Them In Their Youth—is In Fact The Evolved Product Of Many Adjustments Firmly But Delicately Made By Earlier Lovers Of The Same Tradition.

Life Itself Is Just A Thin Coat Of Paint On The Planet, And We Hold The Paintbrush.

Wherever There Is A Design That Is Highly Successful In A Broad Range Of Similar Environments, It Is Apt To Emerge Again And Again, Independently - The Phenomenon Known In Biology As Convergent Evolution. I Call These Designs 'good Tricks.'