The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.

So much American science fiction is parochial - not as true now as it was years ago, but the assumption is one culture in the future, more or less like ours, and with the same ideals, the same notions of how to do things, just bigger and flashier technology. Well, you know darn well it doesn't work that way.

At each stage...entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one.

In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program.

Let us settle down to the serious business of getting drunk.

Will none wipe the sneer off the face of the cosmos?

The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.