“The machine hegemony lacks a viable theory for organic intelligence,” et said out loud. “It recognises that organic life can exhibit complex behaviours, but it also knows that however complex they become they can usually be traced back to hard-wired instincts and the effects of evolutionary selection. When they met the Pandominion they assumed that was what they were dealing with – a more impressive and intricate version of crows using sticks to root insects out of dead wood, or beavers making dams. They don’t recognise organics as sentient and self-aware.”
