Ian McDonald Quotes

United Kingdom, Novelist
March 31, 1960

Ian McDonald (born 1960) is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.

Any AI smart enough to pass a Turing test is smart enough to know to fail it.

Ian McDonald Foreigner
- Smart
- Fail
- Test
Fake it may be, lies and deceptions, but this is the world in which we find ourselves, and here we must make our little lives.

Ian McDonald Foreigner
- World
- May
- Lies

You collect art: you must know that the miniature artists, at the end of careers spent painting the tiniest, most exacting details that no one would ever look at, would often put their eyes out with needles. Too much beauty, yes, but also too much seeing. They were tired of seeing. The dark was safe and warm and comfortable. Blindness was a gift. I still have seeing to do.

Ian McDonald Foreigner
- Art
- Beauty
- Gift
The geek of the Earth are a tribe and they are mighty.

Ian McDonald 21st Century Schizoid Band
- Earth
There's never been a rule of human behavior that hasn't been broken by someone, somewhere, sometime, in some circumstance mundane or spectacular. To be human is to transcend the rules.

Ian McDonald Foreigner
- Broken
He's never fought with religion; what is the point of railing against such beauty, such intimate theatre, such chime of eternity? He can treasure it without believing in it.

Ian McDonald 21st Century Schizoid Band
- Theatre
In the Age of Kali the meek and helpless will be preyed upon without mercy, and there will be a surplus of AK-47s.

Ian McDonald Foreigner
- Age
- Mercy