“Cost is always an object – the second law of thermodynamics sees to that.”

I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and we philosophers are better at questions than answers.

The earth has grown a nervous system, and it’s us.

The only meaning of life worth caring about is one that can withstand our best efforts to examine it.

Problems in science are sometimes made easier by adding complications.

I’m the guy who reputedly denies that people experience colors or pains, and thinks that thermostats think — just ask my critics.

No matter how smart you are, you’re smarter if you take the easy ways when they are available.

I am inclined to think that nothing could matter more than what people love. At any rate, I can think of no value that I would place higher. I would not want to live in a world without love.

Thanks to technology, what almost anybody can do has been multiplied a thousandfold, and our moral understanding about what we ought to do hasn’t kept pace.

As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive.

Words are memes that can be pronounced.

I look around the world and see so many wonderful things that I love and enjoy and benefit from, whether it’s art or music or clothing or food and all the rest. And I’d like to add a little to that goodness.

We have had plenty of atheist presidents; they just wouldn’t admit it.

Human freedom is not an illusion; it is an objective phenomenon, distinct from all other biological conditions and found in only one species – us.

There are no good reasons to believe in god.

AI makes philosophy honest.

Minds are in limited supply, and each mind has a limited capacity for memes, and hence there is considerable competition among memes for entry in as many minds as possible.

It is hard to contend against one’s heart’s desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul.

Who wishes to fight must first count the cost

Courtesy costs nothing, but buys everything.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

The greed of drug companies is out of control and the cost is human lives.

Our biggest cost is not power, or servers, or people. It’s lack of utilization. It dominates all other costs.

My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

Modesty is good. But not when it comes at the cost of honesty.