Complex Numbers

Ad Astra

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
-Oscar Wilde

I've been trying all day to come up with the right words, but without much luck.

I want to say something to commemorate the life and work of Robert A. Heinlein, born 100 years ago today, but I find that everything I think of has either been said before, or doesn't do the subject justice, or both.

Thing is, if you've read Heinlein, you already have your opinion - and if you haven't, nothing I say is going to make a difference.

It's not that I agree with everything he wrote, or aspire to be just like him, or consider him to be the "best" writer - there have certainly been better, both within science fiction and without. It's more that what he wrote influenced my thinking more than any other author.

He had a way of taking your assumptions, your dearly-held basic ideas about the way the world and society work, and stripping them down to the practical. Taboos are exposed as mere hoary tradition, and traditions venerated only to the point where they continue to make sense to an evolving society. As any good science fiction writer will, he came up with alternative societies - with alternative taboos, neither better nor worse than his own society's, just different.

Take a scientist's scalpel to all of your basic assumptions, be it the nature of family, the inviolability of the laws of physics, the definition of "love," everything your priests and shamans have told you, even what you think you know about yourself. Pare it back like a corn on your big toe. It can be painful, and there's no anesthetic, but when you're done there can be this immense sense of relief and accomplishment. For a while it's like there's something missing, but you quickly get used to it.

I think the best I can do now is let the Master speak for himself.

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

Thou art God, and I am God and all that groks is God.

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.

What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars fortell", avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history" - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.

Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven.

Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.

Nobody has ever seen an electron. Nor a thought. You can't see a thought, you can't measure, weigh, nor taste it- but thoughts are the most real things in the Galaxy.

Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.... Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love the greater the jealousy.

The more you love, the more you can love, and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.