If we suppose that many natural phenomena are in effect computations, the study of computer science can tell us about the kinds of natural phenomena that can occur.

Now, being a science fiction writer, when I see a natural principle, I wonder if it could fail.

But how does it feel to plug into a system that's say, a million times as smart as a person.

I like to do things that are surprising and different.

For me, the best thing about cyberpunk is that it taught me how to enjoy shopping malls, which used to terrify me. Now I just pretend that the whole thing is two miles below the moon’s surface, and that half the people’s right-brains have been eaten by roboticized steel rats. And suddenly it’s interesting again.

Science fiction writers put characters into a world with arbitrary rules and work out what happens.

I am, as it were, an eye that the cosmos uses to look at itself. The Mind is not mine alone; the Mind is everywhere.