Good Quotes for Tech research?

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AffineConstant

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What the title says.

"If there is a Creator, he must have an inordinate fondness for beetles" - Geneticist JBL Haldane. Could be for biology or something similar.

Side Note: I nominate Ewan McGregor for narrator. Feel like Sydow and Bean had this "epic voice" quality, but missed out on Nimoy's charm. Everytime I heard "Beep... beep... beep" researching satellites in IV it put a smile on my face, and I think McGregor's infinite charm could bring that sort of thing back.
 
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.

- Jean Jacques Rousseau
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Or, if you prefer a shorter one
Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

- Jean Jacques Rousseau
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Intro to ideologies:
The thought & action of the 19th and 20th centuries are governed by an Idea: Emancipation. It is framed, of course, in different ways depending on what we call the philosophies of history, the grand narratives that attempt to organize this mass of events:
- The Christian narrative of the redemption of original sin through love
- The Enlightenment narrative of emancipation and egalitarianism
- The speculative narrative of the realization of the universal Idea through the dialectic of the concrete
- The Marxist narrative of emancipation from exploitation and alienation through the socialization of work
- The capitalist narrative of emancipation from poverty through techno-industrial development
Between these narratives are grounds for litigation and even differends. But in all of them, the givens arising from events are situated in the course of ha history whose end, even if it is beyond reach, is called 'universal freedom'; the fulfillment of all humanity.

- Jean Francois Lyotard
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For some kind of late-game wartime security tech (although, I don't know if they'd allow, or arrange to allow, quoting from a LucasFilm script):

"I love the Republic. I love Democracy. And I will gladly set aside these emergency powers when this crisis has been resolved." :p
 
As much as I respect Rousseau as a thinker, I really hope civ7 doesn't repeat irs precedessor's weird tendency to bombard us with sarcastic, pessimistic, mocking, misanthropic tech quotes, doubting in merits of civilization and technology - they just fundamentally clash with the tone of the entire series, which is essentially the optimistic vision of human history. Tech quotes are supposed to make you feel gravitas and accomplishment after unlocking new cool toy, maybe make you smile or think for a while, what's the point of mocking the idea of progress in 'Progress: the Game'? That's like a Batman comic which occasionally mocks the very idea of a superhero, being afraid to treat itself seriously and genuinely, instead indulging in the insecure self - denigration. If you make the narrative with some fundamental assumptions, don't be afraid to embrace them, unless you are going for a deconstruction or another convention - breaker to begin with.

Rousseau himself would probably hate the very idea of such game and him appearing in it as a passive participant :p
 
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On researching Field Guns or their equivalent:
"God fights on the side with the best artillery" - Napoleon I

If Cossacks remain as a Unique:
"Take away his horse and he is no longer a Cossack" - Russian proverb

When you get the ability to build Forts or Fortresses:
"Fortresses are the tombs of armies" - German proverb

On declaring War:
"There is a time to pray and a time to fight.
This is the time to fight." - John Muhlenberg, a sermon at Woodstock, Virginian, 1775

Upon researching a new weapon-type or Unit:
"A weapon is offensive or defensive depending on which end of it is pointed at you" - Aristide Brand

And
Upon signing a peace treaty:
"Eternal peace lasts only until the next war" - Russian proverb
 
If we get those cool, vague quotes for future techs again, you could use this one. Or it could just be for "Archaeology" or "Natural History" or something of the sort.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly back into the past..." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

I have my criticisms of the man but I've always loved that quote, and I think it could work.
 
Quote for Future Tech:

“I think we agree; the past is over.”
- George W. Bush
 
1.A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the first law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.
- sir Isaac Asimov

When discovering robotics 🤖
 
reddishrecue said:
1.A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the first law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.
- sir Isaac Asimov

When discovering robotics 🤖
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Military drones - who are a form of robot - already flagrantly violate these rules. :scan:
 
Patine said:
Military drones - who are a form of robot - already flagrantly violate these rules. :scan:
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That's interesting to know. I'm mentioning a primitive robot since sir Isaac asimov was a scientist during the late 1980s. He had no idea what a drone would look like and what kind of new innovation could start. Sort of like the tech tree could add military drone technology to itself.
 
Patine said:
Military drones - who are a form of robot - already flagrantly violate these rules. :scan:
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In modern terminology (Asimov formulated his 'rules' in the early 1950s, about 70 years ago) Asimov's Robots were Autonomous Robots controlled by AI. While a lot of experimenting has been done on AI-controlled weapons, they aren't quite there yet: drones are either directly controlled or given specific instructions on what to do and where to go.

Mind you, that's Today - Tomorrow it may all be different, because numerous military and military research groups are racing to get AI-controlled Weapons (air, ground and/or sea) first, and any first use will doubtless be followed by General Use regardless of consequences.
 
Boris Gudenuf said:
In modern terminology (Asimov formulated his 'rules' in the early 1950s, about 70 years ago) Asimov's Robots were Autonomous Robots controlled by AI. While a lot of experimenting has been done on AI-controlled weapons, they aren't quite there yet: drones are either directly controlled or given specific instructions on what to do and where to go.

Mind you, that's Today - Tomorrow it may all be different, because numerous military and military research groups are racing to get AI-controlled Weapons (air, ground and/or sea) first, and any first use will doubtless be followed by General Use regardless of consequences.
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That's well explained.. thanks for helping me explain. I thought drones could be added but they do come later than robotics with advanced flight...I guess it does make sense to say, "I'll be back" for robotics now that those rules on AI have become a bit obsolete.
 
Also, "The lord bless you and keep you. The lord makes his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The lord lift his countenance upon you and bring you peace." from the Ancient Testament of the bible when researching priesthood.
 
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