Matthew Root

“Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization—a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.”
― Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

“The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines they had (at however great a remove) brought into being: the urge not to feel useless.”
― Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas

“If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“What is any achievement, however great it was, once time itself is dead?”
― Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons