Vernor Vinge

1944–2024 · American mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction writer

Topics: complexity, learning, artificial intelligence, web development

• Technical people don’t make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.

  — Vernor Vinge

• It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing.

  — Vernor Vinge

• We can solve many problems thousands of times faster than natural selection. Now, by creating the means to execute those simulations at much higher speeds, we are entering a regime as radically different from our human past as we humans are from the lower animals.

  — Vernor Vinge

• The hard facts are extraordinary, without adding superstitious mumbo-jumbo.

  — Vernor Vinge

• So much technology, so little talent.

  — Vernor Vinge

• They’re very good at reaching nonsense conclusions from insufficient information.

  — Vernor Vinge

• Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.

  — Vernor Vinge

• Over the last twenty years, the worldwide net had come to be a midden of bogus sites and recursive fraudulence…telling truth from fantasy was often the hardest thing about using the web.

  — Vernor Vinge

• Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.

  — Vernor Vinge

• The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century.

  — Vernor Vinge

• If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.

  — Vernor Vinge

• Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.

  — Vernor Vinge