Jack McDevitt
Jack McDevitt
Jack McDevitt is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races, and with archaeology or xenoarchaeology. His two main series are the Alex Benedict series and the Priscilla Hutchins series...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
winning technology race
Technological civilizations don't last long. You're all right until you get a printing press. Then a race starts between technology and common sense. And maybe technology always wins.
omnipotence deities culture
Universal deities ... never seem to smile. Not in any culture. What's the point of having omnipotence if you don't enjoy it?
stars heard knows
We could never know who we truly were until we heard the whispers of the stars.
unity culture looks
The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.
doe type happens
How does it happen that the most intractable types always rise to the top?
wine imagination demon
Of course, they (i. e., demons) had always been observed with some regularity, but that could usually be ascribed to an overabundance of piety or wine or imagination. Take your pick.
running school opportunity
Put the money into schools. Rational ones that train young minds to think, to demand that persons in authority show the evidence for the ideas they push. Do that, and we won't need to provide a world for the Sacred Brethren who, given the opportunity, would run everyone else off the planet.
queens recognition flaws
The queen of virtues is the recognition of one's own flaws.
goal safety achieve
One could not always put safety up front as the prime goal. Do that, and who would ever achieve anything of note?
dream people chasing
What would happen is that people like Geroge and Alyx would grow old and die chasing a dream. Although there were probably worse things to do with one's life.
ideas people solitude
Solitude is only a good idea if you have the right people along to share it.
bystanders civilization soldier
The measure of a civilization is in the courage, not of its soldiers, but of its bystanders.
mind lines doe
Boundaries have no existence save on charts or in small minds. Nature does not draw lines.
successful careers perception
The secret to a successful career in virtually any field is good public relations. Forget results. Forget the facts. Perception is all that matters.