Schild’s Ladder

by Greg Egan

All an organism could do from day to day was shore itself up in some rough semblance of its previous condition. The same was true, from moment to moment, for the state of the whole universe. By one means or another, everyone was an imperfect imitation of whatever they’d been the day before.

You didn’t need gates and barbed wire to make a prison. Familiarity could pin you to the ground, far more efficiently.

There’s always a way to carry the arrow forward, but it depends on the path you take.”