To conclude and temporarily halt this train of thought, how does any entity know what it is? Hypothesis: by the actions it performs. There is a kind of comfort in this hypothesis. It represents a solu...
There’s no new world, my friend, no New seas, no other planets, nowhere to flee— You’re tied in a knot you can never undo When you realize Earth is a starship too. Ahh,
There remained a main melody, or a path through a maze—a maze that was like the delta of the Po. He seemed to look down on it as he sang it. A great number of channels were weaving down a slightly til...
The town was made of cubical buildings with steep roofs, each one painted a bright primary color that through the long winters was said to be cheering.
The outdoors is what you must pass through in order to get from your apartment into a taxicab. said Fran Lebowitz
The only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing. X claims a, Y claims b. They make arguments to support their claims with any number of points. But when their l...
The intense desire to talk with someone, sharp as any pain; this was what people meant when they talked about love. Or rather; this was what Sax would acknowledge to be love. Just the super-heightened...
The beautiful statue of Ganymede and the eagle looked like they had been molded out of white ceramic, and in Ganymede's outstretched arms it seemed to me a whole world was being embraced, a rushing wo...
The Americans lost all the battles but won the war. Because when they lost they were still here. It was their home. They would go off and regroup, and the British would follow them and beat on them ag...
Spoofing? No. Ponzi scheme? Not at all! Just finance. Legal as hell.
Something to consider: going as fast as we are, if we flew right into the outer layers of the sun, we might emerge again from the sun before there was time for us to heat and burn up. That would creat...
Someone should enjoy it, Ann said. When she was angry or bitter her voice became flat and distant, almost as if she were being matter-of-fact. It won’t be here long.
Some of the gardeners, Nanao said, worked according to the precepts of Muso Soseki, others according to other Japanese Zen masters; others still to Fu Hsi, the legendary inventor of the Chinese system...
So now I’m popular? Freya says. They hate me, and I hit someone, and now they like me?
Ship, are you conscious now? My speaking establishes a subject position that might be conscious.
Sax had always been so uninterested in [power and gain] that it was hard for him to understand why anyone else would be. What was personal gain but the freedom to do what you wanted to do? And what wa...
Reincarnation is a story we tell; then in the end it's the story itself that is the reincarnation.
Indeed, it has to be said that the percentage of old human sayings and proverbs that are actually true is very far from 100 percent. Seems it may be less important that it be true than that it rhyme,...
If you want to write a novel about our world now, you’d better write science fiction, or you will be doing some kind of inadvertent nostalgia piece; you will lack depth, miss the point, and remain con...
I say only this! Arkady said, staring at her bug-eyed. We have come to Mars for good. We are going to make not only our homes and our food, but also our water and the very air we breathe—all on a plan...