How could your cover be blown in Canada? Why even bother going dark there? How could you tell?
Neal StephensonSupposing that originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binary sexual relations come into being?
Neal StephensonA lot of secular, modern people claim to be disillusioned whenever they learn that any smart person is religious. That's applicable to Newton as it is to any other religious smart person
Neal StephensonAres always reemerges from the chaos. It will never go away. Athenian civilization defends itself from the forces of Ares with metis, or technology. Technology is built on science. Science is like the alchemists' uroburos, continually eating its own tail. The process of science doesn't work unless young scientists have the freedom to attack and tear down old dogmas, to engage in an ongoing Titanomachia. Science flourishes where art and free speech flourish.
Neal StephensonAnd it happened all the time that the compromise between two perfectly rational alternatives was something that made no sense at all.
Neal StephensonLike any place in Reality, the Street is subject to development. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one. They can build buildings, parks, signs, as well as things that do not exist in Reality, such as vast hovering overhead light shows and special neighborhoods where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored.
Neal Stephenson