The sense of tragedy is that the world is not a pleasant little nest made for our protection, but a vast and largely hostile environment, in which we can achieve great things only by defying the gods; and that this defiance inevitably brings its own punishment.

— Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (1950)

From the 'Some Communication Machines and Their Future' section of his 1950 book.

Topics: life