A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)

by Becky Chambers

What was the difference between strung-together neurons and a simple bundle of if/then code, if the outward actions were the same? Could you say for certain that there wasn’t a tiny mind in that bot, looking back at the world like a beetle might?

‘But it wasn’t for me, in the end. I love learning. I love history. But there’s history in everything. Every building, everybody you talk to. It’s not limited to libraries and museums. I think people who spend their lives in school forget that sometimes.’

And no matter what the sims said about the power of a single solitary hero, there were some things just too big to change alone.

Possessing knowledge and performing an action are two entirely different processes.’

‘Life is terrifying. None of us have a rule book. None of us know what we’re doing here. So, the easiest way to stare reality in the face and not utterly lose your shit is to believe that you have control over it.

You know this. Everybody’s history is one long slog of all the horrible shit we’ve done to each other.’

Every organic sapient I’ve ever talked to, every book I’ve read, every piece of art I’ve studied. You are all desperate for purpose, even though you don’t have one. You’re animals, and animals don’t have a purpose. Animals just are. And there are a lot of intelligent – sentient, maybe – animals out there who don’t have a problem with that.

But the animals like you – the ones who make tools and build cities and itch to explore, you all share a need for purpose. For reason.