Neal Stephenson Quote
Thinking is what angels do—it is a property given to Man by God. How do you suppose God gives it to us? I do not pretend to know, sir! If you take a man’s brain and distill him, can you extract a mysterious essence—the divine presence of God on Earth? That is called the Philosophick Mercury by Alchemists. Or, if Hooke were to peer into a man’s brain with a good enough microscope, would he see tiny meshings of gears? Daniel said nothing. Leibniz had imploded his skull. The gears were jammed, the Philosophick Mercury dribbling out his ear-holes.
Neal Stephenson
Thinking is what angels do—it is a property given to Man by God. How do you suppose God gives it to us? I do not pretend to know, sir! If you take a man’s brain and distill him, can you extract a mysterious essence—the divine presence of God on Earth? That is called the Philosophick Mercury by Alchemists. Or, if Hooke were to peer into a man’s brain with a good enough microscope, would he see tiny meshings of gears? Daniel said nothing. Leibniz had imploded his skull. The gears were jammed, the Philosophick Mercury dribbling out his ear-holes.
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About Neal Stephenson
Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also writes nonfiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired. He has written novels with his uncle, George Jewsbury ("J. Frederick George"), under the collective pseudonym Stephen Bury.
Stephenson has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (founded by Jeff Bezos) developing a spacecraft and a space launch system, and also co-founded the Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project The Mongoliad. He was Magic Leap's Chief Futurist from 2014 to 2020.