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Top 20 John Brockman Quotes (2025 Update)

John Brockman Quote: “What the mediocrity principle tells us is that our state is not the product of intent, that the universe lacks both malice and benevolence, but that everything does follow rules – and that grasping those rules should be the goal of science.”

1. “What the mediocrity principle tells us is that our state is not the product of intent, that the universe lacks both malice and benevolence, but that everything does follow rules – and that grasping those rules should be the goal of science.”

— John Brockman

$John Brockman Quote: “The universe consists primarily of dark matter. We can’t see it, but it has an enormous gravitational force. The conscious mind – much like the visible aspect of the universe – is only a small fraction of the mental world. The dark matter of the mind, the unconscious, has the greatest psychic gravity. Disregard the dark matter of the universe and anomalies appear. Ignore the dark matter of the mind and our irrationality is inexplicable.”$

2. “The universe consists primarily of dark matter. We can’t see it, but it has an enormous gravitational force. The conscious mind – much like the visible aspect of the universe – is only a small fraction of the mental world. The dark matter of the mind, the unconscious, has the greatest psychic gravity. Disregard the dark matter of the universe and anomalies appear. Ignore the dark matter of the mind and our irrationality is inexplicable.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Psychological well-being is not determined by the presence of one type of emotion but by a diversity of emotions, both positive and negative. Whether or not an emotion is “good” or “bad” seems to have surprisingly little to do with the emotion itself but rather with how mindfully we ride the ebbing and flowing tides of our rich emotional life.”

3. “Psychological well-being is not determined by the presence of one type of emotion but by a diversity of emotions, both positive and negative. Whether or not an emotion is “good” or “bad” seems to have surprisingly little to do with the emotion itself but rather with how mindfully we ride the ebbing and flowing tides of our rich emotional life.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Publication bias is the tendency to not publish “negative,” or nonconfirmatory, results.”

4. “Publication bias is the tendency to not publish “negative,” or nonconfirmatory, results.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Science itself is learning how to better exploit negative results.”

5. “Science itself is learning how to better exploit negative results.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “In science the credit goes to the man who convinced the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.”

6. “In science the credit goes to the man who convinced the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Defeasible beliefs provide the provisional certainty necessary to navigate an uncertain world.”

7. “Defeasible beliefs provide the provisional certainty necessary to navigate an uncertain world.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Illusions are a necessary consequence of intelligence. Cognition requires going beyond the information given, to make bets and therefore to risk errors. Would we be better off without visual illusions? We would in fact be worse off – like a person who never says anything to avoid making any mistakes. A system that makes no errors is not intelligent.”

8. “Illusions are a necessary consequence of intelligence. Cognition requires going beyond the information given, to make bets and therefore to risk errors. Would we be better off without visual illusions? We would in fact be worse off – like a person who never says anything to avoid making any mistakes. A system that makes no errors is not intelligent.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “When we want things to stay the same, we’ll always wind up playing catch-up. Better to go with the flow.”

9. “When we want things to stay the same, we’ll always wind up playing catch-up. Better to go with the flow.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Change is the law. Stability and consistency are illusions, temporary in any case, a heroic achievement of human will and persistence at best. When we want things to stay the same, we’ll always wind up playing catch-up.”

10. “Change is the law. Stability and consistency are illusions, temporary in any case, a heroic achievement of human will and persistence at best. When we want things to stay the same, we’ll always wind up playing catch-up.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “The only value comes if you have something positive to do, and it’s important to match both your own interests and abilities to what you decide to work on. I.”

11. “The only value comes if you have something positive to do, and it’s important to match both your own interests and abilities to what you decide to work on. I.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Part of what makes a theory elegant is its power to explain much while assuming little.”

12. “Part of what makes a theory elegant is its power to explain much while assuming little.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “It’s natural to worry about physical stuff like weaponry and resources. What we should really worry about is psychological stuff like ideologies and norms. As the UNESCO slogan puts it, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”

13. “It’s natural to worry about physical stuff like weaponry and resources. What we should really worry about is psychological stuff like ideologies and norms. As the UNESCO slogan puts it, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “A system that makes no errors is not intelligent.”

14. “A system that makes no errors is not intelligent.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Krebs cycle, discovered in 1937 by Hans Krebs but invented over millions of years of evolution at the dawn of life. It is the eight-stroke chemical reaction that turns fuel into energy in the process of metabolism that is essential to all life, from bacteria to redwoods.”

15. “Krebs cycle, discovered in 1937 by Hans Krebs but invented over millions of years of evolution at the dawn of life. It is the eight-stroke chemical reaction that turns fuel into energy in the process of metabolism that is essential to all life, from bacteria to redwoods.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “Our sun is less than halfway through its life. It formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it’s got 6 billion more years before the fuel runs out. It.”

16. “Our sun is less than halfway through its life. It formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it’s got 6 billion more years before the fuel runs out. It.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “If everyone had the same education, the inequality of income would be reduced by less than 10 percent.”

17. “If everyone had the same education, the inequality of income would be reduced by less than 10 percent.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “William James speculated that subjective time was measured in novel experiences, which become rarer as you get older.”

18. “William James speculated that subjective time was measured in novel experiences, which become rarer as you get older.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “From my informal surveys, it is very uncommon knowledge that the part of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to us is less than a ten-trillionth of it.”

19. “From my informal surveys, it is very uncommon knowledge that the part of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to us is less than a ten-trillionth of it.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “In biology especially, we have labels for everything – molecules, anatomical parts, physiological functions, organisms, ideas, hypotheses. The nominal fallacy is the error of believing that the label carries explanatory information.”

20. “In biology especially, we have labels for everything – molecules, anatomical parts, physiological functions, organisms, ideas, hypotheses. The nominal fallacy is the error of believing that the label carries explanatory information.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “We all start from radical ignorance in a world that is endlessly strange, vast, complex, intricate, and surprising. Deliverance from ignorance lies in good concepts – inference fountains that geyser out insights that organize and increase the scope of our understanding.”

21. “We all start from radical ignorance in a world that is endlessly strange, vast, complex, intricate, and surprising. Deliverance from ignorance lies in good concepts – inference fountains that geyser out insights that organize and increase the scope of our understanding.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “In the United States, recent polls show that 39 percent consider astrology scientific and 40 percent believe that our human species is less than ten thousand years old.”

22. “In the United States, recent polls show that 39 percent consider astrology scientific and 40 percent believe that our human species is less than ten thousand years old.”

— John Brockman

John Brockman Quote: “The joint realization that we live in a remarkable cosmic cocoon and can create languages and rocket ships in an otherwise apparently dumb universe ought to be transformative. Until we find other self-aware intelligences, we are how the universe thinks. We might as well start enjoying one another’s company.”

23. “The joint realization that we live in a remarkable cosmic cocoon and can create languages and rocket ships in an otherwise apparently dumb universe ought to be transformative. Until we find other self-aware intelligences, we are how the universe thinks. We might as well start enjoying one another’s company.”

— John Brockman

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