Quotes by Vernor Vinge

About Vernor Vinge:

Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University (SDSU) Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), Rainbows End (2006), Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002), and The Cookie Monster (2004), as well as for his 1984 novel The Peace War and his 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity", in which he argues that the creation of superhuman artificial intelligence will mark the point at which "the human era will be ended", such that no current models of reality are sufficient to predict beyond it.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence.

Vernor Vinge

But every time our ability to access information and to communicate it to others is improved, in some sense we have achieved an increase over natural intelligence.

Vernor Vinge

I am suggesting that we recognize that in network and interface research there is something as profound (and potential wild) as Artificial Intelligence.

Vernor Vinge

The dilemma felt by science fiction writers will be perceived in other creative endeavors.

Vernor Vinge

When I began writing science fiction in the middle '60s, it seemed very easy to find ideas that took decades to percolate into the cultural consciousness; now the lead time seems more like eighteen months.

Vernor Vinge

It is a point where our old models must be discarded and a new reality rules.

Vernor Vinge

How will the approach of the Singularity spread across the human world view?

Vernor Vinge

Another symptom of progress toward the Singularity: ideas themselves should spread ever faster, and even the most radical will quickly become commonplace.

Vernor Vinge

And for all my rampant technological optimism, sometimes I think I'd be more comfortable if I were regarding these transcendental events from one thousand years remove... instead of twenty.

Vernor Vinge

In fact, there was general agreement that minds can exist on nonbiological substrates and that algorithms are of central importance to the existence of minds.

Vernor Vinge

But if the technological Singularity can happen, it will.

Vernor Vinge

The physical extinction of the human race is one possibility.

Vernor Vinge

Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.

Vernor Vinge

When people speak of creating superhumanly intelligent beings, they are usually imagining an AI project.

Vernor Vinge

IA is something that is proceeding very naturally, in most cases not even recognized by its developers for what it is.

Vernor Vinge

Note that I am not proposing that AI research be ignored or less funded.

Vernor Vinge

We humans have millions of years of evolutionary baggage that makes us regard competition in a deadly light.

Vernor Vinge

The problem is not simply that the Singularity represents the passing of humankind from center stage, but that it contradicts our most deeply held notions of being.

Vernor Vinge

The essence of real creativity is a certain playfulness, a flitting from idea to idea without getting bogged down by fixated demands. Of course, you don’t always get what you thought you were asking for.

Vernor Vinge

Animals can adapt to problems and make inventions, but often no faster than natural selection can do its work - the world acts as its own simulator in the case of natural selection.

Vernor Vinge

The work that is truly productive is the domain of a steadily smaller and more elite fraction of humanity.

Vernor Vinge

Author Bio

  • NameVernor Vinge
  • DescriptionAmerican mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction writer
  • BornOctober 2, 1944
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionMathematician; Computer Scientist; Novelist; Writer
  • WorksTrue Names; A Fire Upon The Deep
  • AwardsHugo Award; Prometheus Award - Hall Of Fame; Prometheus Award - Special Award