The Expert System's Brother (Expert System, #1)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Better a thief than a corpse, yes, but better a thief than a beggar as well. The world finds it harder to say no to a thief.

His smile was brilliant, as hard to look at as the sun. “Now, will you follow where I lead?” He knew we would; we knew we would, but there is a special magic in saying so, binding yourself with word and thought to another man’s purpose.

Our ancestors made sure that we would never lack for advice, but they did not realise that meant we would forget to find things out for ourselves.