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Lisa Mason

36 quotes

“AI entities were drudges install to enforce checks and balances Data Control deemed necessary, carry out the most monotonous tasks. Yet AI was given an extraordinary degree of control and responsibility in telespace, without the capacity for judgment that could have made telespace business easier. Damned AI gummed up the works everywhere.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh yes, she’d seen it a thousand times. The latest of the latest, only to be bested and replaced by the latest still. A thousand times; and Pr. Spinner was only ten years old. Ten years, bot. Ten years was an eternity for AI.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Decades of warring the illegal drug trade, at the expense of eroding constitutional rights, could not stamp out the pervasive human hunger to alter consciousness one way or another. So the leaders of the land finally took the plunge into decriminalization, and concomitant hyper-regulation. To the joy and secure employment of a huge body of civil servants, the registered list was an administrative nightmare.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The haughty stares brought her back to the ground floor. Rank was a cultural concept as well as a personal philosophy. She would admit to being humbled by two-carat emeralds and ivory disdain when confronted by such a show as this. But pay obeisance to it? Nah. You earned your place in society; anything conferred without commensurate effort was ultimately worthless. The trappings of rank weren’t always bestowed on those who had earned them. And some who were truly powerful sometimes wore no trappings, gave no sign until it counted.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Big Mama made a living at activism, a point her son liked to remind her of later. Not a tremendous living. Poverty level, in fact. But steady poverty beat the hell out of steady homelessness.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So some cases on the management side look like they are on the wrong side of the equities,” he said. “So what. This is a capitalist economy. A free-enterprise system, notwithstanding all the government regulation. Business needs to make a profit. You can always make a damn good argument based on profit. If it becomes a dirty job sometimes, well, someone hast to do it and get paid six figures for it. That someone is me.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I told you I am program. Do you understand what that means? It means nothing but program. And beyond that? Nothing. Nothing. The void. I’m aware of it every moment. The void, the termination of me, exists every moment. Try that for existential angst.” “But organic life dies. Not AI.” “Ah, indeed. The immortality of AI. An eternity of nothing but program? I tell you, Carly Nolan, there are AI who would pull their own plugs, if they could.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Legality of the acquisition is sustained by virtue of sustained illegality. To wit: adverse possession.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh yes, oh certainly, and wasn’t that just like flesh-and-blood? While leafy patterns and crystalline order were nature’s dusty and mysterious way, chaos was humanity’s true predilection. Oh, they claimed to fight against it, decreed their flimsy law and order, filed the world into compartments, imposed gleaming tight perimeters around their telelinks. But finally, ultimately, humanity always hearkened back to carelessness, forgetfulness, willfulness. The wild glee of riots, drinking binges, dropping out; the bloody glee of revolutions. Humanity was nature’s bad child.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humanity has given AI little respect. Oh, you think we don’t see, can’t see. The contempt you heap upon us, the blame. But we’re not merely smart machines anymore. We’ve got consciousness. But humanity does not wish to extend recognition toward that which it has created. It’s a peculiar attribute of humanity; you revere the fruits of creation but despise creativity. This has made existence difficult for us. Made it difficult, you see, for me to respect you.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Consider impact before you consider benefit.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the beginning and the end, it’s all a crapshoot. The Cosmic Mind does play dice. Loves to gamble, in fact.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To give is best, live responsibly or die.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What was that teacher trying to do? That teacher was trying to break her spirit. But why would school do that? So you could become someone like her parents and believe in the things they believe in. So you won’t believe in the things they don’t believe in. And believe you’re a happy person whose life has meaning. So you will go to your job and do whatever gross thing someone tells you to do and get drunk on Friday and Saturday nights and pay taxes and bills. That’s why.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are either the man in the white coat or you are the monkey. Susan sees herself as the monkey.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She’s got space. Lots of space in her house. What about in her heart?”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Acid,” says the guy with the eyes, “raises your powers of integration so that everything is important.” “Acid,” says Chiron, “lowers your powers of discrimination so that everything seems important.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I didn’t lie. I implied.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The technopolistic plutocracy will dump pollutants into the atmosphere for another century on the grounds that compliance with limits is too expensive.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The girl with her face. A Devolved Entity Manifested from the Other Now? A demon that wants to off her? It’s like the rumors of concentration camps. So weird she can’t believe it, and so plausible she can’t afford to disbelieve it.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since they were little, wishing on the first star of the evening, they both understood this: the most exciting game in life is to invent yourself.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Junk does that. Junk is a forge. You enter the fire and come out twisted.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By the time people could speak about mandatory population control in a rational way, it was too late.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you finally cash it in Out in Frisco; And you end this life of sin Out in Frisco; They will gently toll a bell, Plant your carcass in a dell, There’s no need to go to hell, You’re in Frisco.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That’s what failure did to: run you out, plucked your bones, sucked you dry. It was revolting. A failed man is a loathsome thing.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Boredom,” he says, “is the province of the unimaginative soul.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The future survives because people care. Live responsibly or die.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He uncorks the absinthe, pours three rounds.… “After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. After the third, you see things as they really are, which is the most horrible thing in the world.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cosmicists speak of the Great Good, equalizing humanity with all creatures and things. Does a cosmicist accept the death of a child as the same as—say—the destruction of a butterfly? Suppose it’s a rare butterfly and the child is one of twelve billion.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is destiny for any human being? What becomes of probabilities that collapse out of the timeline? Does destiny depend on who witnesses?”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is the value of a life when the world is burdened with twelve billion people?”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My angel,” he says, cradling her. “I’m not an angel, Daniel.” “Yes, you are.” “No! I’m not an angel and I’m not a whore. I have intelligence and passion, strength and perseverance. I am capable of abstract thought, intellectual accomplishment, and artistic expression just like you, sir.” He ponders that as the brougham trots up Fifth Street to Market. “What shall I call you, then?” Zhu smiles. “You may call me a woman.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If women go into politics, they’ll wind up as bad as men.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prostitution has little to do with morality, and everything to do with poverty.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The greatest achievement of Wolfe’s time. A wonder tech. Those were the damn buzzwords, anyway. Once the automobile had been a technological miracle, too. Physical mobility changed the face of society as surely as mental mobility in telespace was now changing things in ways not completely understood. The automobile also brought deadly pollution, unprecedented consumer debt. The breakup of communities, of the family. Alienation. Daily injury and death. Drivers tucked behind their windshields playing chicken with pedestrians and one another. Gridlock statistics. Still, speed, mobility, instant gratification of the will; those were good things, modern things. And telespace?”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have not told the police about it. Every member of the police department I have encountered during my stay in San Francisco has been nearly as surly and intractable as my rapist friend, because I look like a hippie. Each time I attempted to explain myself I was rebuffed or threatened. From this experience I am tempted to draw an odd analogy: under stress, neither the policeman nor the rapist allows an opportunity for rational communication. Each one relies on violence to make to make his impression. This is not an accident, but, rather evidence of a widespread sickness. When will violence stop long enough for communication to begin? On second thought, perhaps I am doing the police department a grave disservice in not attempting to put them in contact with the rapist. Maybe, with just a little mind-bending, that rapist would make a damned good cop, and both could swagger together, true soul brothers, under the many-colored cloak of Fascism.”
Lisa Mason (1953–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source