Ark In Space Quotes

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It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
The test! It was as if they believed the test was an infallible superbeing that had descended to earth on a great space ark surrounded by thunderbolts of perfection.
Gordon Korman (Ungifted)
Well," she said, "I see it hasn't got a fuck of a lot better since I was away.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Matter is lazy. It resists change. It wants to keep on doing whatever it's doing, whether that's sitting still or moving. We call that laziness inertia, but that doesn't mean we understand it. For a thousand years we've labelled it, quantified it, caged it in equations, but we've still only scratched the surface of what it really is.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Alright. Let's get realistic now. You know and I know that the function of that number was just to provide some sort of warm-up trash before we do something HEAVY. Something a little bit harder to listen to, but which is probably better for you in the LONG RUN. The item in this instance, which will be better for you in the LONG RUN, and if we only had a little more space up here we could make it visual for you, is "Some Ballet Music," which we've played at most of our concert series in Europe. Generally in halls where we had a little bit more space and Motorhead and Kansas could actually fling themselves across the stage, and give you their teenage interpretation of the art of The Ballet. I don't think it's too safe to do it here, maybe they can just hug each other a little bit and do some calisthenics in the middle of the stage.
Frank Zappa
The ship had always been vast and intricate, its topology as unfathomable as the abandoned subway system of a deserted metropolis. It had been a ship haunted by many ghosts, not all of which were necessarily cybernetic or imaginary. Winds had sighed up and down its kilometres of empty corridors. It was infested with rats, stalked by machines and madmen. It had moods and fevers, like an old house.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
The Age of the Stars had come to an end. Once in a billion years, a feeble supernova illuminated the vestiges of its home; brown dwarfs, neutron stars, blackholes... lifeless echoes of their former majesty.
Jake Vander-Ark (The Day I Wore Purple)
I thought most kids would give their right arm to go into outer space,” Shulsky added unhelpfully. “Haven’t you ever dreamt about becoming an astronaut?” “No,” Alex said. “I always wanted to be a train driver.
Anthony Horowitz (Ark Angel (Alex Rider, #6))
The public has a short memory. That's why all these big stars do these crazy, terrible things and two years later they're back in the biz, you know. 'Cause the public has a short memory. Let me give you a little test, okay? This is my thesis -- the public has a short memory and, like-- How many people remember, a couple of years ago, when the Earth blew up? How many people? See? So few people remember. And you would think that something like that, people would remember. But NOOO! You don't remember that? The Earth blew up and was completely destroyed? And we escaped to this planet on the giant Space Ark? Where have you people been? And the government decided not to tell the stupider people 'cause they thought that it might affect-- [dawning realization, looks around] Ohhhh! Okay! Uh, let's move on!
Steve Martin
It doesn’t matter whether there’s blood in your veins or hydraulic fluid, it’s everyone’s right to be free.
W.H. Mitchell (The Arks of Andromeda (The Imperium Chronicles #1))
Behold, Mr. Clavain: Chasm City. A place I have to come to know and, while not actually love, perhaps not to detest with quite the same missionary zeal as when I first arrived.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
I am not cruel,” he said. “Not in the sense you mean. But cruelty is a useful tool if one can only recognise the precise moment when it must be used.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Then centrifugal gravity took over, and with something close to majesty the skeletal spacecraft descended out of the repair bay as smoothly and elegantly as a falling chandelier.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Madness, yes . . . but heartfelt madness.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Volyova did not like planets at the best of times, and gas giants struck her as an unreasonable affront to human scale and frailty. In that respect, they were almost as bad as stars.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Partnerka Clavaina została chirurgicznie zmodyfikowana w ten sposób, że mogła przyjąć w macicy żywy mózg po operacji będącej prostym odwróceniem cesarskiego cięcia - zabieg wykonywał Clavain. Ciało mężczyzny zostawili na miejscu, by znaleźli je strażnicy. Następnie Hybrydowcy sklonowali dla tego człowieka nowe ciało i wpakowali do środka ciężko doświadczony mózg.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
It was not that intelligent life was rare, it seemed, but that intelligent life was very, very prone to becoming extinct. Almost as if something was deliberately wiping it out. The wolves were the missing element in the puzzle, the agency responsible for the extinctions. Implacable, infinitely patient machines, they homed in on the signs of intelligence and enacted a terrible, crushing penalty. Hence, a lonely, silent galaxy, patrolled only by watchful machine sentries.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
is the “waters” of the celestial “ocean” which come to mind, in which Noah’s Ark now swims as a constellation. In the Indian version of this story the ark is a boat on which the Seven Rishis (better known to us as the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major), and the Vedic culture that they represent, are ferried to safety by a giant Fish (the constellation Pisces). Gazing on myth from this angle we can find in the skies many of the cast of characters of “The Greatness of Saturn.” Aditi [* FOOTNOTE: A well-thought-out cosmology which catalogues such extensions of ‘Earth’ into ‘Space’ is presented by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend in Namlet’s Mill, and the interested reader will find a wealth of detail worth pondering in that book.] (‘The Unbroken, Unbounded One’; by extension, eternity) is the mother of the devas, the ‘shining celestials,’ and Diti (‘The Bound, Divided, Cut One’) is the mother of the asuras, the enemies of the devas. There is good reason to believe that Aditi represents the northern celestial hemisphere and the zodiac, which being the part of the heavens that is visible throughout the year
Robert E. Svoboda (The Greatness of Saturn: A Therapeutic Myth)
Most of the people on the Cloud Ark were going to have to be women. There were other reasons for it besides just making more babies. Research on the long-term effects of spaceflight suggested that women were less susceptible to radiation damage than men. They were smaller on average, requiring less space, less food, less air. And sociological studies pointed to the idea that they did better when crammed together in tight spaces for long periods of time. This was controversial, as it got into fraught topics of nature vs. nurture and whether gender identity was a social construct or a genetic program.
Neal Stephenson (Seveneves)
Creed by Abigail Carroll, p.196-197 I believe in the life of the word, the diplomacy of food. I believe in salt-thick ancient seas and the absoluteness of blue. A poem is an ark, a suitcase in which to pack the universe—I believe in the universality of art, of human thirst for a place. I believe in Adam's work of naming breath and weather—all manner of wind and stillness, humidity and heat. I believe in the audacity of light, the patience of cedars, the innocence of weeds. I believe in apologies, soliloquies, speaking in tongues; the underwater operas of whales, the secret prayer rituals of bees. As for miracles— the perfection of cells, the integrity of wings—I believe. Bones know the dust from which they come; all music spins through space on just a breath. I believe in that grand economy of love that counts the tiny death of every fern and white-tailed fox. I believe in the healing ministry of phlox, the holy brokenness of saints, the fortuity of faults—of making and then redeeming mistakes. Who dares brush off the auguries of a storm, disdain the lilting eulogies of the moon? To dance is nothing less than an act of faith in what the prophets sang. I believe in the genius of children and the goodness of sleep, the eternal impulse to create. For love of God and the human race, I believe in the elegance of insects, the imminence of winter, the free enterprise of grace.
Sarah Arthur (Between Midnight and Dawn: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide)
The missing link between animals and the real human being is most likely ourselves”. Konrad Lorenz “Nothing exists except atoms and space; everything else is opinion”. Democritus of Abdera “The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity”. Edward de Bono.
John Cowie (Silbury Dawning: The Alien Visitor Gene Theory 3rd Edition)
She would worry, just as you worry. It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Beyond the haze, the globe was decorated with a mosaic of sapphire, emerald and amber. The planet glittered like a jewel in the moonlight.
L.T. Gibbons (Project Ark)
chancrous
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Joseph Ratzinger never developed his own theological system. As a theologian he took on what was there, discerned its essentials, situated it in relation to the context of the time, and then expressed it anew – to preserve the message of the gospel and the accrued knowledge of the Christian past for generations to come. Given the significance which he thereby assigned to the Church, his struggle for this Church is understandable – he wanted it to remain the barque of salvation in space and time, a Noah’s Ark for the transmission of a better world. He called this, ‘the eschatological radicalism of the Christian revolution’.6
Pope Benedict XVI (Last Testament: In His Own Words)
She wanted him to become cleverer, so that she could become cleverer still.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
If every season carry in itself the other three, then verily were all the seasons one at every point of Time and Space. Aye, Time is the greatest juggler, and men are the greatest dupes.
Mikhail Naimy (The Book of Mirdad: The Strange Story of a Monastery which was Once Called The Ark)
And, for the sake of maximum figures, John Woodmorappe assumed 14 (i.e., pairs of 7) of each genus of the clean animals, which again was still not that many! In the end, he estimated less than 8,000 kinds (about 15,745 individuals) for a maximum figure, based on this genus level and calculations. Using the smaller-sized Ark and this maximum number of animals in his model (plus accounting for their required floor space/cages/rooms), he estimated only 46.8% of the Ark was required to hold all the animals!
Bodie Hodge (Dinosaurs, Dragons, and the Bible)
Orthodox theologian Brad Jersak describes a time of exhaustion in his own life, on the verge of burnout, when he learned to attend to his soul in ways that would surely have resonated with Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, and the apostle Paul. It began with a strange fantasy—a dark cave with a crackling fire—that Brad started visiting regularly in prayer. Day after day he would simply imagine himself in this space, sitting silently with Jesus, sheltering from a storm outside, not even knowing if this counted as prayer. And then one day he “noticed” a surprising thing: the ark of the covenant had also materialized in the cave. This continued for weeks. All verbal prayer had given way to this internal, quiet vision. . . . I began to wonder if this was fruitful, if it was even prayer at all. Perhaps I should have started writing prayer lists again? But I had no heart for that. Even my forays into reading psalms ended with my forehead pasted in the pages of my Bible. All I
Pete Greig (How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People)
Readers' Favorite Book Reviews and Book Awards Review Rating: 5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review! Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite The Magnificence of the 3 by Timeout A Taumua begins by looking at the connections between neuroscience, atomic structure, and biblical narratives. In it, Taumua draws parallels between the trees of knowledge in the Garden of Eden and the neurons in the human brain, speaking on the function of mirror neurons in memory and learning. Taumua discusses the significance of rhythmic radio signals from space as signs of design and the symbolic importance of the numbers three, six, and nine. He presents atomic structure as a metaphor for moral duality, with stable atoms representing balance and unstable atoms reflecting decay. He also talks at length on subjects like the interconnectedness of emotional dynamics, spiritual beliefs, and genetic factors, suggesting that desire acts as a stabilizing force in existence, guiding behavior and promoting community cohesion through practices like forgiveness and the evolution of the Sabbath. There's a huge amount of information to absorb in The Magnificence of the 3 by Timeout A Taumua, which is delivered in a thoughtful mix of scientific study with spiritual analysis. Taumua's writing style is academic, but I found it also to be accessible and was able to understand the representations of identities of the Tree of Knowledge, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Ark of the Covenant. It was fitting that Taumua would say, "One does not need a scientific degree to see the similarities of both the trees of knowledge and the trees of earth." As the idea of blind faith loses popularity, writers like Taumua become critically important in filling the vacuum that was once exclusively the domain of churches. Overall, this book is more than a philosophical treatise; it challenges readers to reconsider the links between knowledge, morality, and existence, making it an enlightening read for anyone interested in the fusion of science and spirituality. Very highly recommended.
Timeout Taumua
Voyagers, I’ve always wanted to write about you. And now, at 4:41 a.m. on an autumn morning, Words have found their way into my mind. I picture myself like you— Distant from life, Alone, Yet moving towards an unknown destination! Like you, in the early stages of my journey, I could see, I could gather knowledge and transmit it, I was useful and efficient. But sometimes, to keep connected to the world, To be able to stay on course and conserve my energy, I had to shut parts of myself down, To survive, To go blind, to be deaf, to be isolated, and just occasionally signal my existence to the world. The same thing I do, that you do, that so many others do. The boundless reaches of space Have become somewhat more comprehensible through you, Yet the depths of the human soul remain unfathomable, And its pain incurable. We live in an age surrounded by a torrent of information, Yet somehow, we remain lonely and lost. Language has advanced, There are words for nearly everything, Everyone can describe their own state of mind, yet we’re still at war with one another. Earth has turned into a vast ship, Perhaps like Noah’s Ark, With maximum diversity and multiplicity, Yet everyone on this ship plays their own tune, rallies their own cause! Someone steps forward, claiming each individual’s thoughts and personal benefit are like rare pearls to be cherished, While another insists that collective welfare takes precedence, That the needs of the masses outweigh individual desires. Some launch movements to claim their rights, While others start movements to flaunt the rights they’ve acquired. No one knows what they truly want; We’re all still lost. I don’t know how Earth looks from afar— Perhaps like a blueberry-flavored lollipop, A lollipop with a stick, But Earth’s stick is an invisible one made of sorrow. I find something common among all the passengers on this ship, All the inhabitants of this blueberry lollipop: sorrow. A fetus in its mother’s womb is also like a lollipop, But connected by an umbilical cord. As a fetus, Growing in the mother’s womb, Suffering, malnutrition, and physical ailments can be painful for us. If the mother’s state is stable, We may enjoy brief periods of security and calm, but after that, We must endure the pain of separation, Learn how to breathe, And besides the sorrow of leaving security behind, We face new emotions like fear and anger. Later in life, We each take our own path. No matter how much they try to show humans as social creatures, It’s always the individual who walks their own way, who has the freedom to choose, Even if one finds the meaning of their path in joining a group or a collective, it’s their individual choice that put them on that path. Today, people have countless options to join others who are like them, And these options themselves bring confusion, And when you join a group out of confusion, You treat the other groups with hostility. Science, philosophy, religion, politics…each of them has thousands of branches, and each branch Wants to disprove the other, cleanse itself of its shameful past. Freedom of speech has become an excuse for verbal assaults and psychological wounds, Non-violence has become a breeding ground for new and emerging dictators, For heartless sects and brutal factions. Knowledge and science alone cannot save us, Just as religion couldn’t. I don’t want to write about chaos, Life isn’t that disorganized, In some corner of the world, A lover is staring up at his beloved’s window, A child is laughing joyfully. But writing about sorrow, Speaking of chaos and Asking questions can reveal where we stand. Now, we know so much about space, And about the Sun, too. The James Webb telescope has mapped out the cosmos for us, and countless projects are underway for the future, crafted with flawless precision and extraordinary coherence, but the rift between humans remains deep.
Arash Ghadir
Have you ever thought of why its called ''two edge sword'' ? 1. It is the bread knife and normal knife 2. its the burglar proof in your house against thieves and the space you put in place to escape yourself when there is fire out break in your house. 3) Have you realize people trying to kill all the pest on the plant so much that they forget they will at the end eat it ? Trying to kill the mosquito in the room you spray so much pesticide you forget you will sleep in it later? When you preach Grace only to cover your nakedness, how do you expect people to take you seriously? WHEN THE TRUMPET gives an uncertain sound, How do the soldiers know when to prepare for war? God help me remember that in the Holiest of Hollies, THE MERCY SEAT WAS PLACED ON THE ARK WHERE IN THE WORD (SWORD) LAID.
Mary Tornyenyor
observing the way the rig needed only occasional human intervention to stay locked on the road. Doubtless it could have managed with none at all, were it not for local union laws. Very
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Is that what happened to Mercier?” “No—not quite. In so far as I understood Sukhoi’s work, it appeared that the zero-mass state would be very difficult to realise physically. As it neared the zero-mass state, the vacuum would be inclined to flip to the other side. Sukhoi called it a tunnelling phenomenon.” Clavain raised an eyebrow. “The other side?” “The quantum-vacuum state in which matter has imaginary inertial mass. By imaginary I mean in the purely mathematical sense, in the sense that the square root of minus one is an imaginary number. Of course, you immediately see what that would imply.” “You’re talking about tachyonic matter,” Clavain said. “Matter travelling faster than light.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Clavain looked around the room, taking in the gruesome menagerie of wraithlike seniors, wizened elders and obscene glass-bottled end-state Conjoiners. They were all hanging on his answer, even the visible brains seeming to hesitate in their wheezing pulsations.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Ammonia worked better, but it was dangerous, and you couldn’t easily get more of it in space. If the Cloud Ark survived, it would survive on a water-based economy. A hundred years from now everything in space would be cooled by circulating water systems. But for now they had to keep the ammonia-based equipment running as well. Further
Neal Stephenson (Seveneves)
Clavain was looking at a hyperpig: a genetic chimera of pig and human.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Researcher John Woodmorappe decided to go a different route in 1996. He wanted to calculate maximum figures for animals and also included food and even water on board Noah’s ark.5 To do this, Woodmorappe decided to use the smaller-sized ark (based on the shorter cubit of 18 inches). This would be an ark about 450 feet long. Then, instead of a family level for the kind (although he recognized the kind was closer to the family level), he used a genus level for all the kinds! So instead of one dog kind, there would be more than ten dog kinds represented in his numbers since there are more than 10 levels of genus within the dogs! For the sake of maximum figures, John Woodmorappe still did 14 of each genus of the clean animals, which again was still not that many! What he found was under 8,000 kinds and about 16,000 (15,745) individuals maximum, based on this genus level and calculations. With a smaller ark and this maximum number of animals and their required floor space/cages/rooms, this came out to be about 46.8% of the ark used to hold the animals!
Ken Ham (A Flood of Evidence: 40 Reasons Noah and the Ark Still Matter)
delight in putting colonies everywhere.  The Tadpoles noted the terraforming project on the fourth world with bemusement.  There was no shortage of habitable worlds beyond the tramlines either.  Why the humans considered an attempt to reshape an old and dry world into something suitable for them was beyond the factions.  It looked like an expensive and pointless project to them. Let them waste their resources, if they must, one sub-faction stated.  It only weakens them. We will set course for the fifth planet, the Combat Faction said.  There was nothing to be gained by trying to understand humans.  They were alien beings.  Their society and history spoke of nothing, but war.  They were too dangerous to be allowed to infest space.  And they will follow us. Doubt floated through parts of the Song, but not enough to force a change.  The fifth planet was a massive gas giant, one of the largest recorded.  And the installations orbiting the giant planet were easy to identify.  Cloudscoops and refineries ... if they were destroyed, they’d hamper human reconstruction.  It wasn't a direct way to win, but it would work.  And it would force the humans to give chase.  They’d have no choice. And then we will win, the Combat Faction stated.  It will only be
Christopher G. Nuttall (The Longest Day (Ark Royal, #10))
In zero gravity, heads did not loll lifelessly. Even mouths did not drop open. Dead bodies continued to assume more or less lifelike postures, whether restrained by webbing or allowed to drift untethered from wall to wall. It was one of the earliest and most chilling lessons of space warfare: in space, the dead were often difficult to tell from the living.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
The story of Noah’s Ark, if you’re familiar, left out the part where the animal kingdom is repopulated entirely through rampant incest.
Tom B. Night (Mind Painter)
The work of preserving life that Noah undertakes is done under the direction of God; it requires planning and preparation; and it involves skillful labor, the use of human ingenuity and technology. The construction of the ark is perhaps the preeminent biblical symbol of conservation efforts and the preservation of biodiversity (“the animals going in were male and female of every living thing” [Gen. 7:16]). The ark, then, reminds us that our role of working and taking care of the earth includes the good use and application of technology. A biblical approach to creation care may well necessitate, as we have begun to see, a re-envisioning of what it means to be limited human creatures, and it may require of us a willingness to let go of our endless pursuit of “progress” (at least as our societies have defined it) in order that we might embrace richer and simpler ways of life that give space for and promote the flourishing of all of life. But, however reconfigured it all may need to be, such an approach will not involve a retreat from technology, science, art, innovation, and exploration. We need instead to reconsider the purpose of all these human endeavors, to redefine what progress would look like, and to clarify what constitutes good work.
Douglas J. Moo (Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World (Biblical Theology for Life))
For that you must be dispossessed of everything, that Time and Space may have no hold upon your hearts. The more you possess, the more you are possessed. The less you possess, the less you are possessed.
Mikhail Naimy (The Book of Mirdad: The Strange Story of a Monastery which was Once Called The Ark)
Even if it contained some kind of military virus, Ilia,  I doubt very much that it would harm me and my present state. It would be a little like a man with advanced leprosy worrying about a mild skin complaint, or the captain of a sinking ship concerning himself with a minor incident of woodworm, or…
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
[What, the enforced paralysis and the sense of creeping terror? You mean you don’t like that?]
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
be specific, then: a type in Scripture (tupos in Greek, meaning originally a die-stamp or matching impression) is an event, institution, place, object, office, or functioning person that patterns a greater reality that in some sense is of the same kind and is due to appear on history’s stage at some subsequent point. This greater reality is called the antitype. The term “type” is taken from Romans 5:14, where Adam is called a tupos(“pattern”) of Christ, the one who was to come. “Antitype” comes from 1 Peter 3:21, where baptism, understood not simply as an applying of water to the body but also, and essentially, as an outgoing of faith to God, is called the antitypethat the preserving of Noah through the flood waters by his entering the ark had prefigured. A type establishes a frame for interpreting the greater reality when it appears, and meantime, simply by existing, it inculcates the principle of which the greater reality will in fact be the supreme instance. When the greater reality arrives, it becomes the decisive factor in its own field; one way or another it transcends and supersedes the type. In space-time terms, the type is thenceforth a thing of the past, no longer determinative of what must be done or of what will happen. The biblical account of it, however, is of permanent value as providing concepts and categories for understanding the antitype. Typology thus becomes a kind of phrase book for use in theology.
J.I. Packer (A Passion for Faithfulness: Wisdom From the Book of Nehemiah (Living Insights Bible Study, 1))
We’ve managed to do without intelligent machines until now, Skade. Not because we fear them but because we know that any intelligent entity must choose its own destiny. Yet that servitor doesn’t have any free will, does it? Just intelligence. The one without the other is a travesty. We’ve gone to war over less.]
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Given up, Khouri? It's not in my dictionary.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
Worldwide Long Range Solutions Special Interest Group [ ¤ SIG AeR.WLRS 253787890.546]. Space Colonization Subgroup. Open discussion board. Okay, so imagine we get past the next few rough decades and finally do what we should have back in TwenCen. Say we mine asteroids for platinum, discover the secrets of true nanotechnology, and set Von Neumann "sheep" grazing on the moon to produce boundless wealth. To listen to some of the rest of you, all our problems would then be over. The next step, star travel, and colonization of the galaxy, would be trivial. But hold on! Even assuming we solve how to maintain long-lasting ecologies in space and get so wealthy the costs of star-flight aren't crippling, you've still got the problem of time. I mean, most hypothetical designs show likely starships creeping along at no more than ten percent of the speed of light, a whole lot slower than those sci-fi cruisers we see zipping on three-vee. At such speeds it may take five, ten generations to reach a good colony site. Meanwhile, passengers will have to maintain villages and farms and cranky, claustrophobic grandkids, all inside their hollowed-out, spinning worldlets. What kind of social engineering will that take? Do you know how to design a closed society that'd last so long without flying apart? Oh, I think it can be done. But don't pretend it'll be simple! Nor will be solving the dilemma of gene pool isolation. In the arks and zoos right now, a lot of rescued species are dying off even though the microecologies are right, simply because too few individuals were included in the original mix. For a healthy gene pool you need diversity, variety, heterozygosity. One thing's clear, no starship will make it carrying only one racial group. What'll be needed, frankly, are mongrels… people who've bred back and forth with just about everybody and seem to enjoy it.
David Brin (Earth)
It was one of the oldest tricks of mob-management: give them a hate figure. The
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))
engines silhouetted against an aura of chill flame.
Alastair Reynolds (Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2))