In contrast, markets - oft mythologized as "natural" are the most unnatural things going. Libertarians will tell you "market laws are laws of nature", what baloney. Markets - and the other great modernist cornucopian tools - are magnificent wealth generating machines, built ad-hoc, through trial and error, constantly fine-tuned and refined, tinkered, adjusted.

Self-awareness is probably overrated. A complex, self-regulating system doesn't need it in order to be successful, or even smart.

Anyone who wants simple, pat stories should buy another author's product. The real universe ain't that way, and neither are my fictive ones.

Only a knowledgeable, empowered and vocal citizenry can perform well in democracy.

If you have other things in your life-family, friends, good productive day work-these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.

We already live a very long time for mammals, getting three times as many heartbeats as a mouse or elephant. It never seems enough though, does it?

It is a paradox of Life that all species breed past mere replacement. Any paradise of plenty soon fills to become paradise no more.