Top 60 Vernor Vinge Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “But if the technological Singularity can happen, it will.”

— Vernor Vinge

2. “Politics may come and go, but Greed goes on forever.”

— Vernor Vinge

3. “Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.”

— Vernor Vinge

4. “What we have is a data glut.”

— Vernor Vinge

5. “It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing.”

— Vernor Vinge

6. “I say, let’s learn more and then speculate.”

— Vernor Vinge

7. “Intelligence is the handmaiden of flexibility and change.”

— Vernor Vinge

8. “So much technology, so little talent.”

— Vernor Vinge

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

— Vernor Vinge

10. “Poor humans; they will all die.“”Poor us; we will not.”

— Vernor Vinge

11. “The illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I’ll bet you never guess. From the inside, how can you?”

— Vernor Vinge

12. “If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.”

— Vernor Vinge

13. “The physical extinction of the human race is one possibility.”

— Vernor Vinge

14. “I have argued above that we cannot prevent the Singularity, that its coming is an inevitable consequence of the humans natural competitiveness and the possibilities inherent in technology.”

— Vernor Vinge

15. “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

16. “The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.”

— Vernor Vinge

17. “How to explain? How to describe? Even the omniscient viewpoint quails.”

— Vernor Vinge

18. “Pham Nuwen plunked himself down, stretching indolently.”

— Vernor Vinge

19. “We’re long on high principles and short on simple human understanding.”

— Vernor Vinge

20. “Peregrine Wickwrackscar was flying. A pilgrim with legends that went back almost a thousand years-and not one of them could come near to this!”

— Vernor Vinge

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

— Vernor Vinge

22. “Life is a green madness just now, trying to squeeze the last bit of warmth from the season.”

— Vernor Vinge

23. “Peregrine Wickwrackrum was of two minds about evil: when enough rules get broken, sometimes there is good amid the carnage.”

— Vernor Vinge

24. “I argue in this paper that we are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth.”

— Vernor Vinge

25. “Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.”

— Vernor Vinge

26. “All evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is.”

— Vernor Vinge

27. “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

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

— Vernor Vinge

29. “One of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability.”

— Vernor Vinge

30. “Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there’s always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.”

— Vernor Vinge

31. “Ravna thought a moment. “Sysadmin is the usual term,” she said.”

— Vernor Vinge

32. “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

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

— Vernor Vinge

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

— Vernor Vinge

35. “Sometimes the biggest disasters aren’t noticed at all – no one’s around to write horror stories.”

— Vernor Vinge

36. “He was guided by what he saw rather than by what he wanted to believe.”

— Vernor Vinge

37. “I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.”

— Vernor Vinge

38. “Once upon a time I was such a good liar; I could talk the fish right into my mouths.”

— Vernor Vinge

39. “The voice was gentle, like a scalpel petting the short hairs of your throat.”

— Vernor Vinge

40. “I think the Mailman is taking us on one at a time, starting with the weakest, drawing us in far enough to learn our True Names – and then destroying us.”

— Vernor Vinge

41. “How long must a fish study to understand human motivation?”

— Vernor Vinge

42. “Half-assed programming was a time-filler that, like knitting, must date to the beginning of the human experience.”

— Vernor Vinge

43. “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

44. “How will the approach of the Singularity spread across the human world view?”

— Vernor Vinge

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

— Vernor Vinge

46. “We’re endangered by our own success.”

— Vernor Vinge

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

— Vernor Vinge

48. “He claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind – but most everybody else agreed it made you daft.”

— Vernor Vinge

49. “Where the surf meets the shore – lots of neat things can happen there.”

— Vernor Vinge

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

— Vernor Vinge