In article
<1ca8daf7-8461-49df-a9f4-dacf8500e477@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
pmh <pmhilton@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> >>>Are they caching information,
>> >> Yeah, they usually have a library,
>>
>> This is the big generalist vs. specialist morass that many people get
>> into circular arguments.
>> Heinlein tends to get quoted along the way:
>> better discussion format would be:
>>
>> "A human being should be able to change a diaper,
>> plan an invasion,
>> butcher a hog,
>> conn a ****p,
>> design a building,
>> write a sonnet,
>> balance accounts,
>> build a wall,
>> set a bone,
>> comfort the dying,
>> take orders,
>> give orders,
>> cooperate,
>> act alone,
>> solve equations,
>> analyze a new problem,
>> pitch manure,
>> program a computer,
>> cook a tasty meal,
>> fight efficiently,
>> die gallantly.
>> Specialization is for insects."
>> -Lazarus Long character, Time Enough For Love =A0by Robert A. Heinlein
....
>> Here are some other Long quotes I added to the DB that some one sent
me:
>>
>> =A0"The Notebooks of Lazarus Long." =A0Other quotes include
>> (paraphrased from memory):
>>
>> "In a duel, always get off the first shot. =A0This flusters your
opponent
>> enough that you have time to make your second shot count."
>>
>> "When ambushed in the wild, don't shoot at all. =A0Silence is your
ally.
>> A dagger in the throat is worth a hundred rounds of ammo."
>>
>> "A human being should be able to build a bridge, bake a souffle,
>> take out an appendix, change a diaper, write a sonnet, and dig a ditch.
>> Specialization is for insects."
>>
>> "I heard another ending to the grasshopper and ant fable. =A0The
grasshop=
>per
>> came back with a few of his buddies and drove out the smaller ants.
>> The ants died that winter. =A0The grasshoppers lived well that winter
on
>> the ants' stores, but died the next winter just the same."
>>
>> Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human.
>> At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes,
bathe,
>> and not to make messes in the house. -- Robert Heinlein
>>
>> >> But this is fiction.
>> >Entertaining, creative, parts of it, thought provoking...
>> You have to know its limits.
>
>Still in fiction, but fiction which is at least as instructive as
>Lazarus long - Try "Lucifer's Hammer" by Jerry Pournelle. Survivalist
>writing with a different twist. Under Pournlle's scenario, much of
>Lazarus Long's hedonism becomes moot if not detrimental.
LH came up briefly in discussion at the SETI Inst. last week.
I commonly see Jerry once a year, sometimes his brings his wife and son
about November. It's not like I go out of my way to read Jerry, but he
clearly has an older following. Most of the younger crowd reads Neal
Stephenson (I'm in touch with Neal at the moment, because he's down my
way in 2 weeks: he will likely be mobbed by a zoo).
--
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