15 Quotes by M. Mitchell Waldrop

Everything affects everything else, and you have to understand that whole web of connections.

It’s also the principle that lies behind all of Oriental martial arts. You don’t try to stop your opponent, you let him come at you-and then give him a tap in just the right direction as he rushes by. The idea is to observe, to act courageously, and to pick your timing extremely well.

They believe that they are forging the first rigorous alternative to the kind of linear, reductionist thinking that has dominated science since the time of Newton – and that has now gone about as far as it can go in addressing the problems of our modern world.

I think there’s a personality that goes with this kind of thing,” Arthur says. “It’s people who like process and pattern, as opposed to people who are comfortable with stasis and order. I know that every time in my life that I’ve run across simple rules giving rise to emergent, complex messiness, I’ve just said, ‘Ah, isn’t that lovely!’ And I think that sometimes, when other people run across it, they recoil.

Nonetheless, his vision of high technology’s enhancing and empowering the individual, as opposed to serving some large institution, was quite radical for 1939 – so radical, in fact, that it wouldn’t really take hold of the public’s imagination for another forty years, at which point it would reemerge as the central message of the personal-computer revolution.

The point was that you have to look at the world as it is, not as some elegant theory says it ought to be.

Why is it that simple particles obeying simple rules will sometimes engage in the most astonishing, unpredictable behavior?

So for James, too, will derives not from the freedom to initiate thoughts, but to focus on and select some while stifling, blocking-or vetoing-others. For Buddhist mindfulness practice, it is the moment of restraint that allows mindful awareness to take hold and deepen. The essence of directed mental force is first to stop the grinding machine-like automaticity of the urge to act. Only then can the wisdom of the prefrontal cortex be actively engaged.

Like it or not, the marketplace isn’t stable. The world isn’t stable. It’s full of evolution, upheaval, and surprise.