The substructure of the universe regresses infinitely towards smaller and smaller components. Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons, quarks. Each layer unravelled reveals new secrets, but also new mysteries.
In one moment, Earth; in the next, Heaven.
There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation which gradually extends the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn, nonetheless, for the latter.
Begin with a function of arbitrary complexity. Feed it "sense data". Square your result and feed it back into the original, adding a new set of data. Continue to feed your results back into the original. What do you have? The fundamental principle of human consciousness.
The first living thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was not so great as they say.
The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say "It cannot be done."
The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shan't allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!
What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon? Decent people shouldn't think too much about that.
The genetic code does not, and cannot, specify the nature and position of every capillary in the body or every neuron in the brain. What it can do is describe the underlying fractal pattern which creates them.
To map the very stuff of life; to look into the genetic mirror and watch a million generations march past. That, friends, is both our curse and our proudest achievement. For it is in reaching to our beginnings that we begin to learn who we truly are.
A brave little theory, and actually quite coherent for a system of five or seven dimensions -- if only we lived in one.
We have reached an informational threshold which can only be crossed by harnessing the speed of light directly. The quickest computations require the fastest possible particles moving along the shortest paths.
Time travel in the classic sense has no place in rational theory, but temporal distortion does exist on the quantum level, and more importantly it can be controlled.
Time dilates as the speed of light approaches. To the extent that light consists of particles, it is in its own way, timeless. Through simple perturbations of the temporal manifold, we can refract or repel photons most efficiently.
Imagine the full contents of the datalinks, the sum total of human knowledge, blasted into the Planetmind's neural network with the full force of every reactor on the planet. That is our last-ditch attempt to win a reprieve from extinction at the hands of an awakened alien god.
Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all?
The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets. But it was never the streets that were evil.
At atrociously high energy states, the properties of matter change subtly and new miracles become possible. The Plasma Accretion process is now dangerous and difficult to control, but its products will soon become commonplace in our society.
As distances vanish and the people can flow freely, society will cross a psychological specific heat boundary and enter a new state. No longer solid or liquid, we have become as vapor and will expand to fill all available space. And like gas, we shall not be easily contained.
Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem!
The Morgans fear what may not be purchased, for a trader cannot comprehend a thing that is priceless.
And so we return again to the holy void. Some say this is simply our destiny, but I would have you remember always that the void EXISTS, just as surely as you or I. Is nothingness any less a miracle than substance?
Men in their arrogance claim to understand the nature of creation, and devise elaborate theories to describe its behavior. But always they discover in the end that God was quite a bit more clever than they thought.
Will we next create false gods to rule over us? How proud we have become, and how blind.
We must dissent.
And what of the immortal soul in such transactions? Can this machine transmit and reattach it as well? Or is it lost forever, leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair?
Already we have turned all of our industries and resources over to these...things...these lumps of silver we call nanorobots. And now we propose to teach them intelligence? What, pray tell, will we do when these homunculi one day announce that they have no further need for us?
Go through, my children! The time of miracles is upon us. Let us cast off sin and walk together to the Garden of the Lord. With God's mercy we shall meet again on the other side.
Superior training and superior weaponry have, when taken together, a geometric effect on overall military strength. Well-trained, well-equipped troops can stand up to many more times their lesser brethren than linear arithmetic would seem to indicate.
Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself. The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with inferior force.
Against such abominations, we organize our defenses on the principle that one strong and able mind can shield the many.
The klaxon began to wail, but we felt the reassuring tingle of the Tachyon Field crackling to life around us, encasing the entire base in its impenetrable glow.
I don't know but I've been told, Deirdre's got a Network Node. Likes to press the on-off switch, Dig that crazy Gaian witch!
Man has killed man from the beginning of time, and each new frontier has brought new ways and new places to die. Why should the future be different?
Children not only shape our future; they determine in many ways our present. Men and women work harder knowing their children are safe and close at hand, and never forget that, with children present, parents will defend their home to the death.
I have often been asked: if we have travelled between the stars, why can we not launch the simplest of orbital probes? These fools fail to understand the difficulty of finding the materials on this Planet, and creating the infrastructure necessary to support such an effort.
It is altogether fitting that we who have sailed the deeps of space now return again to the sea. This is in many ways a water planet, and it can be ruled from the waves. With sea power, rugged terrain can be bypassed and enemy strongholds isolated.
Nano-Paste, one of our most valuable commodities, can also be our most dangerous. Pour out several canisters, slide in a transponder, and step well away. In under an hour it will use available materials to assemble a small factory, a tank, or enough rifles to equip a regiment.   
A ship at sea is its own world. To be the captain of a ship is to be the unquestionable ruler of that world and requires all of the leadership skills of a prince or minister.
Our scientists now use fractal theory to "teach" the molecules to assume, or resume, a particular form. Substances of amazing strength become simple once the formulae are properly computed.
We shall take only the greatest minds, the finest soldiers, the most faithful servants. We shall multiply them a thousandfold and release them to usher in a new era of glory.
Until now the battle had been proceeding smoothly. The enemy was outflanked and had been driven from the reactor housing, but against the reactor itself the matter cannons were strangely ineffective. Rounds simply... stopped. In mid-air.
Air power rests at the apex of the first triad of victory, for it combines Mobility, Flexibility, and Initiative.
Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.
A handsome young cyborg named Ace, wooed women at every base, but once ladies glanced at his special enhancement, they vanished with nary a trace.
He held his arm too stiffly, and so was thrown back repeatedly, until at last I seized his forearm and snapped it back against itself. His training suffered while the arm healed, of course, but I felt this was a lesson he must learn early, and well.
Our ancestors harnessed the power of a sun, and so again shall we.
I loved my chosen. How then to face the day when she left me? So I took from her body a single cell, perhaps to love her again.
I think, and my thoughts cross the barrier into the synapses of the machine - just as the good doctor intended. But what I cannot shake, and what hints at things to come, is that thoughts cross back.
In my dreams the sensibility of the machine invades the periphery of my consciousness. Dark. Rigid. Cold. Alien. Evolution is at work here, but just what is evolving remains to be seen.
Until quite recently spider silk had the highest tensile strength known to man. And the name silksteel pays homage to the arachnid for good reason.
As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny.
The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism.
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
In the years since our arrival, we have foolishly disrupted so many of Planet's ecosystems that entire species may vanish without ever having been understood. We must halt this plunder immediately, for our own survival depends on our ability to strike a balance on this world.
The Mind Worms are the natural defenses of the living Planet--the white blood cells, if you will. In a world in which unassimilated thought represents danger, the Mind Worm seeks out concentrations of sentient mental energy and destroys them, ruthlessly and efficiently.
I hold a scrap of paper in the darkness and light it. I watch it burn bright and curl, disappearing into nothingness, and the heat burns my fingers. Where has it gone? What has it become? I cannot shake the feeling that I have witnessed a form of transcendence.
The entire character of a base and its inhabitants can be absorbed in a quick trip to the Rec Commons. The sweaty arenas of Fort Legion, the glittering gambling halls of Morgan Bank, the sunny lovers' trysts in Gaia's High Garden or the somber reading rooms of U.N. Headquarters.
Scientific theories are judged by the coherence they lend to our natural experience and the simplicity with which they do so. The grand principle of the heavens balances on the razor's edge of truth.
Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective.
The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile the unscrupulous use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.
Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded.
We hold life as sacred, but we also know the foundation of life consists of a stream of codes not unlike the frames of a watchvid. Why then cannot we cut one here, and start another there? Is life so fragile that it withstands no tampering? Does the sacred brook no improvement?
I maintain nonetheless that yin-yang dualism can be overcome. With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure without pain. Remember, enlightenment is a function of willpower, not of physical strength.
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand and produce a probe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools. Each is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.
Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more.
If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself.
If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is a sign of our maturity as a species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: life's only purpose is life itself.
What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.
Learn to overcome the crass demands of flesh and bone, for they warp the matrix through which we perceive the world. Extend your awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self of group and the self of humanity.
The goals of the group and the greater race are transcendent, and to embrace them is to achieve enlightenment.
It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people.
Specially designed for labor, the Genejack's muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?
Our first challenge is to create an entire economic infrastructure, from top to bottom, out of whole cloth. No gradual evolution from previous economic systems is possible, because there is no previous economic system.
Each interdependent piece must be materialized simultaneously and in perfect working order; otherwise the system will crash out before it ever gets off the ground.
Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary but competition for limited resources remains constant. Need as well as greed has followed us to the stars and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse.
Energy is the currency of the future.
We estimate during the next century most of our industries will be moved off-planet to Nessus Prime and other orbital facilities. Industries will benefit greatly from the low gravity environments available in space, particularly those involving genetically engineered microbes.
What goes up... better doggone well stay up.
Richard Baxton piloted his Rover into a fungal vortex and held off waves of mind worms, saving an entire colony. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into "Recon Rover Rick" with a media campaign: televids, touchbooks, holos, psi-tours- the works.
People need heroes. They don't need to know how he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy. The real story would just hurt sales, and dampen the spirits of our customers.
Important, yes. Critical, absolutely! I would go so far as to say that super conducting fiber alone makes our present economy possible.
Yes, yes, we've all heard the philosophers babble about "oneness" being "beautiful" and "holy". But let me tell you that this kind of oneness certainly isn't pretty and if you're not careful it will scare the bejeezus out of you.
'Abort, Retry, Fail?' was the phrase some wormdog scrawled next to the door of the Edit Universe project room. And when the new dataspinners started working, fabricating their worlds on the huge comp systems, we'd remind them: if you see this message, always choose 'Retry.'
Optical computers, genetic catalogs, nanorepair modules--forget all of that. It's when you see a megaton of steel suspended over your head by a thread the thickness of a human hair that you really find God in technology.
Organic Superlube? Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff. You really have to keep an eye on it, though - it'll try and slide away from you the first chance it gets.
As I stepped onto the Magtube, a thought struck me: can there be friction where there is no substance? And can substance be tricked into hiding from itself?
You ivory tower intellectuals must not lose touch with the world of hard currency. It is all very well to pursue these high-minded theories, but research grants are expensive. You must justify your existence by providing not only knowledge, but profitable applications as well.
Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.
And when at last it is time for the transition from megacorporation to planetary government, from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent.
Energy is the lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls the energy supply controls Planet. In former times the energy monopoly was called "The Power Company"; we intend to give this name an entirely new meaning.
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes! Our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us.
Where do you want your Node today?
I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice.
Fossils fuels in the last century reached their extreme prices because of their inherent utility: they pack a great deal of potential energy into an extremely efficient package. If we can but sidestep the 100 million year production process, we can corner this market once again.
Objects once measured in meters have become so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, with revolutionary applications across the board. Gentlemen, forget what your courtesans have told you: size does matter!
In the borehole pressure mines 100km beneath Planetsurface, at the Mohorovicic Discontinuity where crust gives way to mantle, temperatures often reach levels well in excess of 1000 degrees Celsius.
Exploitation of Planet's resources under such brutal conditions has required quantum advances in robotic and teleoperational technology.
We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed.
The feedback loop never really ends, so a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck, but it is the primary bonding process--the childhood, if you will--that has the most far-reaching repercussions.
Life is merely an orderly decay of energy states, and survival requires the continual discovery of new energy to pump into the system. He who controls the sources of energy controls the means of survival.
Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate exactly the first tiny dot of color, and the next and the next, you would end with a perfect copy, indistinguishable from the original in every way, including the so-called "moral value" of the art itself.
Planet's Primary, Alpha Centauri A, blasts unimaginable quantities of energy into space each instant, and virtually every joule of it is wasted entirely. Incomprehensible riches can be ours if we can but stretch our arms wide enough to dip from this eternal river of wealth.
Some civilians got in among the research patients today and became so hysterical I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled. The consequence will be another public relations nightmare, but I was shaken by the extent of their revulsion towards a project so vital to our survival.
Having now established a perimeter, we've made ourselves safe from enemy incursions. But against the seemingly random attacks by Planet's native life, only our warning sensors can help us, for the worms infiltrate every crevice and chew through anything softer than plasma-steel.
Observe the Razorbeak as it tends to the fungal blooms; just the right bit from the yellow, then the pink. Follow the Glow Mites as they gather and organize the fallen spores. What higher order guides their work? Mark my words: something is managing the ecology of this planet.
The fungus has been Planet's dominant life since about the time of the Lower Paleozoic on Earth. But every hundred million years or so, it achieves the critical mass necessary to become sentient, but the final metamorphosis kills of most of the other life on the planet.
The prevalence of anoxic environments rich in organic material, combined with the presence of nitrated compounds has led to an astonishing variety of underground organisms which live in the absence of oxygen and "breathe" nitrate.
Likewise, the scarcity of carbon in the environment has forced plants to economize on its use. Thus, all our efforts to return carbon to the biosphere will encourage the native life to proliferate. Conversely, the huge quantities of nitrate in the soil will be heaven to farmers.
I believe Planet will talk to us if we are willing to listen. These fungal stalks behave as multistate relays: taken together, the neural net connectivity must be staggering. Can a planet be said to have achieved sentience?
From the delicate strands, between minds we weave out mesh: a blanket to warm the soul.
You are the children of a dead planet, EarthDeirdre, and this death we do not comprehend. We shall take you in, but may we ask this question - will we too catch the planetdeath disease?
Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?
No longer mere earthbeings and planetbeings are we, but bright children of the stars! And together we shall dance in and out of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness until the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn again to the beginning.
You waited so long to heed us, EarthDeirdre. Almost we pruned you, as we may yet prune your branches.
We welcome you, EarthDeirdreand earthwheat and earthtree as honored guests, for you add great power to our ancient song - planetfungus and planetworm and planetmind sing and play here, and you are welcome among us.
Planet's atmosphere, though a gasping death to humans and most animals, is paradise for Earth plants. The high nitrate content of the soil and the rich yellow sunlight bring an abundant harvest wherever adjustments can be made for the unusual soil conditions.
The Isle of the Deep is really not a single creature but a colony of thousands of tubules, an aquatic vector of the Mind Worm. Over its lifetime it secretes a tough, gluelike substance which hardens to form the characteristic shell and creates the appearance of a rogue island.
As the writhing, teeming mass of mindworms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. "Stay calm! Use your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail.
It is well known that the Mind Worm Boil uses psychic terror to paralyze its prey, and then carefully implants ravenous larvae into the brains of its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only the most disciplined troops can resist this horrific attack.
Symbols are the key to telepathy. The mind wraps its secrets in symbols; when we discover the symbols that shape our enemy's thought, we can penetrate the vault of his mind.
I shall not confront Planet as an enemy, but shall accept its mysteries. Nor shall I crudely seek to peel the layers away. Instead I shall gather them together as the tree gathers the breeze. The wind shall blow and I shall bend. The sky shall open and I shall drink my fill.
In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth.
Those who join us need only give up only half of their humanity- the illogical, ill-tempered, and disordered half, commonly thought of as 'right-brain' functioning. In exchange, the 'left-brain' capacities are increased to undreamed potentials.
The tendency of Biologicals to cling instead to their individual personalities can only be attributed to archaic evolutionary tendencies.
And I stood before him, and I sang unto her, and it appeared to listen. His very countenance rippled like the sea, and the sound of my own voice came back to me, distorted. For a moment I thought she was mocking me, or it was nonsapient and mimicking me.
Then I understood: the sounds were not important; it was how I affected his sounds and how she affected mine that transmitted the message.
The Progenitor race appears to sense, and possibly even manipulate, local fields an untrained human cannot perceive without mechanical aid, including at the very least electricity and magnetism.
This sensitivity creates entirely new worlds of artistic endeavors for the race- or it may be developed into a powerful combat awareness that can foil any attempt at surprise.
Here we tinker with metal to try to give it a kind of life, and suffer those who would scoff at our efforts. But who's to say that, if intelligence had evolved in some other form in past millennia, these beings would not scoff at the idea of intelligence residing within meat?
The sea... vast, mysterious... and full of wealth! And the nations of Planet send their trade across it without a thought. Well, the sea doesn't care about them, so it lets them pass. But we can give the sea a little hand in teaching the landlubbers a lesson in humility.
Of all the employments, working the brood pit was at once the most horrific and the most desirable. Horrific for what we saw occur day after day, and because of is very nature. Desirable, because having being chosen to work in the pit, you were unlikely to be one of its victims.
Each individual pipe contains a hot slurry of minerals drawn from Planet's crust and makes a sound like rain falling on a tin roof. When they converge on the trunkline the sound is a terrifying thunder, a thunder of untold wealth, and power.
The boundary between cold water and warm, the Thermocline, has been important to undersea warfare for hundreds of years. Now we have found a way to harness that power for constructive purposes. Once what cloaked us can feed us. Once what shielded us from death, brings us life.
Now it's day and night the irons clang, and like poor galley slaves, We toil and toil, and when we die, must fill dishonored graves. But some dark night, when everything is silent in the town, I'll shoot those tyrants one and all, I'll gun the flogger down.
I'll give the land a little shock, remember what I say, And they'll yet regret they've sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay.
To understand a thing is to know the manner by which it might be destroyed. A fundamental understanding of the basic building-blocks of the Universe is essential, then, to the total destruction of everything.
In one dimension I find existence, in two I find life, but in three, I find freedom.
The managers always talked about the view from 30,000 feet. The problem with 30,000 feet though, was at that height, all of the people look like ants.
What's more important, the data or the jazz? Sure, 'Information should be free' and all that- but anyone can set information free. The jazz is in how you do it, what you do it to, and in almost getting caught without getting caught. The data is 1's and 0's. Life is the jazz.
War is war; destruction is destruction. You think this is obvious. But war is not destruction, it is victory. To achieve victory, simply appear to give your opponent what he wants and he will go away, or join you in your quest for additional power.
By creating a planetary network, mankind on Planet now has the ability to share information at light-speed. But by creating a single such network, each faction has brought themselves closer to discovery as well.
At the speed of light, we will catch your information, tag it like an animal in the wild, and release it unharmed-if such should serve our purposes.
Mankind has been blind for thousands of years- for all of its history. We have come to a place whose wonders are a hundred-fold more amazing than anything on Earth. Around us is clear evidence of the will of a higher power.
I bring the Vision to the blind eyes of men. I bring the Word to the deaf ears of men. I will make them see it. I will make them hear it.
The ancient Chinese had a name for it: Feng Shui. We call it energy flow. It is the same thing: energy is everywhere, but only a fraction of it is tapped. The Progenitors have taught us that we can tap not only our latent abilities, but the latent abilities of the Universe.
I saw the alien phalanx, and I calmed my mind as Kri'lan had taught me. What I saw next to the phalanx was a shadow regiment, half-formed from the resonance. I cursed the aliens... with power like that, each could fight as many, and I thanked Planet for sending us the betrayer.
Kri'lan taught me of the resonance and how to feel it. After much training, I could see -- the very surface under our feet, Planet itself -- is a living, fluctuating nexus of energy, violent, beautiful and quite unstable.
Tau Ceti flowering: Horrors visited upon neighboring systems must never be repeated. Therefore: if it means the end of our evolution as a species, so be it..
Humans: there is no space inside rocket. Progenitor: space exists around all things with mass. Space: "here". Inside rocket: "there". Secret: bring here to there.
Manifold harmonic fields: within, the true nature of the universe becomes apparent. Layers: within layers. Worlds: within worlds. Inside: the heart of everything opens, and everything opens to it.
Risks of Flowering: considerable. But rewards of godhood: who can measure?
Humans: correct in making leap from wealth as currency to wealth as energy. But logic failure: wealth ultimately is extension of desires, fluctuating with emotions and state of mind. Desires: when all are supported in purely adaptable system, true wealth is achieved.
We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time?
Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?
I swear sometimes they're watching me.
Preliminary analysis indicates that our rivals have developed a safe and reliable method to simulate conditions existing on the interior of a stellar mass. The transmutation of materials possible in such an environment guarantees significant industrial and military applications.
When I die, they will put my body in a box and dispose of it in the cold ground. And in all the million ages to come, I will never breathe, or laugh, or twitch again. So won't you run and play with me here among the mass of humanity? The universe has spared us this moment.
Please don't go. The Drones need you. They look up to you.
If you can discover a better way of life than office-holding for your future rulers, a well-governed city becomes a possibility. For only in such a state will those rule who are truly rich, not in gold, but in the wealth that makes happiness--a good and wise life.
Red-hot iron, white-hot iron, cold-black iron; an iron taste, and iron smell, and a Babel of iron sounds.
Sky farms are fantastically beautiful, with their kilometer long networks of glass framed in grids of metal, and the sunlight shining through jungles of vegetation inside.
When one of them catches the light, you can see the refracted beauty for miles; they are life-giving stars on a desolate planet...gardens on the wing.
Let the Gaians preach their religion, but one way or the other I shall see this compound burned and sterilized until every hiding place is found and until every last Mind Worm egg has been cooked to a smoking husk. That species shall be exterminated, I tell you! Exterminated!
You are orphans, earthdeirdre, your homeworld already buried so young among the aeons. Yet now you fill the skies where we watched a million sunsets with flame and contrails, paying no heed to the hard lessons the universe has tried to teach you.
Are you a breath of life to invigorate a complacent world, you earthhumans, or an insidious cancer which must be excised?
It is not uncommon to see patients undergo permanent psychological trauma in the presence of the Sphere, before the nerve stapler has even been strapped into position.
Its effect on the general consciousness of the culture is profound: husbands have seen wives go inside, mothers their children. Dr. Xynan left the surface of the sphere semitranslucent for a reason. You can hear them in there; you can see them. It is a thing of terrible beauty.
We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains.
Heaven lasts long, and Earth abides - What is the secret of their durability? Is it because they do not live for themselves, That they endure so long?
When the hourglass has run out, when the noise of life has grown silent and its restless activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not.
God does not play dice.
Resonance comes not from individual being: rather city as whole. Progenitors not separate: lines between us blur. Resulting Power: exponential. Brilliant beacon: even in vast Universe!
Juvenile Sealurks, isolated from the planetary consciousness, perform astounding feats as underwater sheepdogs. Vast schools of Sporefish may be herded by only a few well trained specimens. Just don't let them get too close to the fungus, or they turn on you like a Razorshark.