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41 " Well, Io is Mordor: Look up Part Three. There’s a passage about ‘rivers of molten rock that wound their way… until they cooled and lay like twisted dragon-shapes vomited from the tormented earth.’ That’s a perfect description: how did Tolkien know, a quarter century before anyone ever saw a picture of Io? Talk about Nature imitating Art. "
― Arthur C. Clarke , 2010: Odyssey Two
42 " I thought this couldn’t happen in astronomy. Isn’t celestial mechanics supposed to be an exact science? So we poor backward biologists were always being told. "
43 " The crisis was over. What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities. "
44 " it was an accident—that had killed Frank Poole. "
45 " Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is a conspiracy. "
46 " That’s still looking a long way ahead. For the present, you’re the only person who should attempt communication. Agreed, Captain? "
47 " There’s a passage about ‘rivers of molten rock that wound their way… until they cooled and lay like twisted dragon-shapes vomited from the tormented earth.’ That’s a perfect description: how did Tolkien know, a quarter century before anyone ever saw a picture of Io? Talk about Nature imitating Art. "
48 " One day, perhaps, the human race would develop a new aesthetic; generations of artists might arise whose ideals were not based upon the natural forms of Earth molded by wind and water. "
49 " Dr. C. informs me that, in technical terminology, Hal became trapped in a Hofstadter–Moebius loop, a situation apparently not uncommon among advanced computers with autonomous goal-seeking programs. He suggests that for further information you contact Professor Hofstadter himself. "
50 " Beyond gravity, some of that freedom was regained; with the loss of weight went many of the cares and worries of Earth. Heywood "
51 " Nevertheless, when you did not know what you were looking for, it was important to avoid all prejudices and preconceptions; something that at first sight seemed irrelevant, or even nonsensical, might turn out to be a vital clue. "
52 " But economical Mother Nature was always repeating herself, on such vastly different scales as the swirl of milk stirred into coffee, the cloud lanes of a cyclonic storm, the arms of a spiral nebula. "
53 " Hal remained a low-grade moron. "
54 " Einsteinian time dilation. "
55 " classical Hohmann orbit— "
56 " after Hal had refused to open the Pod Bay door. "
57 " a gentle tickling on Floyd’s wrist announced an incoming call. "
58 " Now, what did “feel” really mean to a computer? Another very good question, but hardly one to be considered at that particular moment. Then, "
59 " A fin-de-siècle philosopher had once remarked—and been roundly denounced for his pains—that Walter Elias Disney had contributed more to genuine human happiness than all the religious teachers in history. Now, half a century after the artist’s death, his dreams were still proliferating across the Florida landscape. "
60 " But the age of the Machine-entities swiftly passed. In their ceaseless experimenting, they had learned to store knowledge in the structure of space itself, and to preserve their thoughts for eternity in frozen lattices of light. They could become creatures of radiation, free at last from the tyranny of matter. "