#terre

No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been. ↗

— Hannah Arendt

#been #commission #contrary #could #crime

The fancy that extraterrestrial life is by definition of a higher order than our own is one that soothes all children, and many writers. ↗

— Joan Didion

#definition #extraterrestrial #fancy #higher #life

So, we need to delegitimize the nuclear weapon, and by de-legitimizing... meaning trying to develop a different system of security that does not depend on nuclear deterrence. ↗

— Mohamed ElBaradei

#deterrence #develop #different #does #meaning

The major deterrent to war is in a man's mind. ↗

— Arleigh Burke

#major #man #mind #war

Democrats always assure us that deterrence will work, but when the time comes to deter, they're against it. ↗

— Ann Coulter

#always #assure #comes #democrats #deter

Having worked for him in the nuclear weapons policy business, I can tell you that President Reagan was committed to assuring the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent. ↗

— Frank Gaffney

#business #committed #deterrent #effectiveness #having

Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim? ↗

— Carl Sagan

#science #science-vs-religion #experience

Our nuclear weapons are meant purely as a deterrent against nuclear adventure by an adversary. ↗

— Atal Bihari Vajpayee

#adversary #against #deterrent #meant #nuclear

The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. ↗

— Jules Verne

#breath #covers #desert #everything #feels

The journey of a thousands suns begins today. Some may question whether the journey is worth the sacrifice and danger. To them I say that no sacrifice is too dear and no danger too great to ensure the very survival of our human species. What will we find when we arrive at our new homes? That's an open question. For a century, deep-space probes have reported alien lifeforms, but thus far none of which we recognize as intelligent beings. Are we the only biological intelligence in the universe? Perhaps our definition of intelligence is too narrow, too specio-centric. For, are not trees intelligent, who know to shed their leaves at the end of summer? Are not turtles intelligent, who know when to bury themselves in mud under ice? Is not all life intelligent, that knows how to pass its vital essence to new generations? Because half of intelligence resides in the body, be it plant or animal. I now commend these brave colonists to the galaxy, to join their minds and bodies to the community of living beings they will encounter there, and to establish our rightful place among the stars. ↗

— David Marusek

#colonization #extra-terrestrial-life #generation-ships #humanity #singularity