S.B. Divya > Quotes

“Technology was as habit-forming as every escapist, feel-good drug”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“When you find a good person, someone who's grown with you, moved around with you, who forgives your bullshit and thinks you're sexy on your off days... When it hurts to live without them, no matter how angry you are, you find it in your heart to forgive *their* bullshit”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“Privacy had gone the way of the dodo during Welga’s childhood. Some part of her always remembered the cameras. In Marrakech, the caliph’s network blackout had unsettled her more than the potential for violence – the lack of communication, the inability to see what others were doing. It would take a million lifetimes to watch every minute of every public feed, but she had a sense of security knowing she could look out for her people, and they’d do the same. Losing that had felt like walking around with one shoe: doable but not at all comfortable.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“Life exists to gather and disseminate information.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“Humans are terrible people. First they polluted Earth, then they turned Mars into a hot, stormy hellhole when they tried to terraform it. Now they want to do the same to Meru. They have no gratitude for the work alloys and constructs do to keep Earth clean and safe and livable or the work our tarawans do to maintain genetic diversity and adaptability. They’re stuck in the same old selfish gene-set they evolved from.>”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“Modern society has found itself at the mercy of an oligarchy whose primary objective is to accrue power. They have done this by dividing human labor into two classes: designers and gigsters. The former are exploited for their cognitive power, while the latter rely on low-skilled, transient forms of work for hire.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“At the end of that segment, they came upon a plaque with the words of Ratnam inscribed in glowing letters: Ambition and materialism lead to greed and exploitation.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“If she’d been in gravity, she might have fallen over with surprise”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“She?” “Yes, at least until she tells us otherwise.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“The western way of thinking embraces duality. Good and evil. Man and woman. Mind and body. Human and machine. We reject these false dichotomies. Science has shown that our universe works across a range of possibilities. It embraces the infinite.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“A giant hand pressed her into the foam until it hugged her like a dear friend.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“They could speak through emtalk while their lips were busy elsewhere.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“the movement from post-scarcity to post-necessity,”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“The notion of individual rights as separate from all others is a fallacy on the order of classical mechanics relative to quantum theory.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“The machines who labor for us and alongside us are enslaved and exploited in their own fashion. Gone are the days of dumb engines and processors. Today, nearly every machine contains some type of adaptive intelligence. What gives human beings the right to arbitrate when an intelligence becomes equivalent to a person?
The Machinehood Manifesto; March 20, 2095”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“What would be the long-term consequences for a dakini revolution? Every technological advancement had consequences.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“Inoculation at an early age meant that people had to opt in for having children rather than the other way around, and humanity’s natural inertia meant that few bothered.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“Vaha had secured zirself in the berth diagonal from the courier’s.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“some magic of biogenetic manipulation—not permanent, of course, lest humanity pollute the intentions of its Creator—everyone would become super capable. Or enter the leisure class. Or ascend to some digital faux godhood.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“heartsib.”
― S.B. Divya, Loka

“First comes desire, born of the mind. Next comes will, to carry the self. Last comes peace, the fulfillment of purpose.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“Our lives are luxuries. You should appreciate that more. Ambition and materialism lead to greed and exploitation”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“Her people attacked me, and I defended myself. We believe that she is responsible for crimes against human- and machine kind. We believe that the governments of Earth have failed to protect their people from criminals like her.”
“Are you human or AI?”
“I am both.”
The second agent spoke. “In what ways are you human?”
“I have a mother and a father, I was born into the world, like you. I have a soul.”
“and what makes you AI?”
“My body contains a collection of machine intelligences. We coexist.”
― S.B. Divya, Machinehood

“The purpose of the judiciary is to make you contemplate your mistakes and convince you not to commit the same crime again. That’s why they’re called consequences and not punishments.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru

“Like the people of Tongvana,” Somya said, “and their philosophy of coexistence rather than maintenance. Instead of seeing ourselves as caretakers, we should act like the integral parts of the environment that we are.”
― S.B. Divya, Loka

“some need more. They want to feel accomplished, like they’ve pushed at the boundaries of all knowledge and made it yield to their efforts. They want to make a lasting contribution that will carry their name forward into the centuries after they’re gone.”
― S.B. Divya, Meru