“Programmed by quanta, physics gave rise first to chemistry and then to life; programmed by mutations and recombination, life gave rise to Shakespeare; programmed by experience and imagination, Shakespeare gave rise to Hamlet.”

“Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics.”

“What's happened with society is that we have created these devices, computers, which already can register and process huge amounts of information, which is a significant fraction of the amount of information that human beings themselves, as a species, can process.”

“Something else has happened with computers.”

“Computers are famous for being able to do complicated things starting from simple programs.”

“A claim that event horizons exist is like someone's claim to be immortal: You would have to wait until the end of time to confirm the claim.”

“Programmed by quanta, physics gave rise first to chemistry and then to life; programmed by mutations and recombination, life gave rise to Shakespeare; programmed by experience and imagination, Shakespeare gave rise to Hamlet.”