When I began writing science fiction in the middle 60s, it seemed very easy to find ideas that took decades to percolate into the cultural consciousness; now the lead time seems more like eighteen months.

Life is a green madness just now, trying to squeeze the last bit of warmth from the season.

Well, what do you know," Pham said. "Butterflies in jackboots.

But if the technological Singularity can happen, it will.

The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.

Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.

Intelligence is the handmaiden of flexibility and change.