Quote for the Day: Larry Niven, "Lucifer's Hammer"

[corvus_rex]

“Whole nation depends on technology. Stop the wheels for two days and you'd have riots. No place is more than two meals from a revolution. Think of Los Angeles or New York with no electricity. Or a longer view, fertilizer plants stop. Or a longer view yet, no new technology for ten years. What happens to our standard of living?” “Sure, we're a high-technology civiliz-” “Yet …” Sharps said. His voice was firm. He intended to finish. “Yet the damned fools won't pay ten minutes’ attention a day to science and technology. How many people know what they're doing? Where do these carpets come from? The clothes you're wearing? What do carburetors do? Where do sesame seeds come from? Do you know? Does one voter out of thirty? They won't spend ten minutes a day thinking about the technology that keeps them alive. No wonder the research budget has been cut to nothing. We'll pay for that. One day we'll need something that could have been developed years before but wasn't-”

Pournelle, Jerry; Niven, Larry (2010-09-22). Lucifer's Hammer (p. 44). Fawcett Crest. Kindle Edition.