Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1)

by Robert Jackson Bennett

He’s just trying to fix the world because it’s the only way he knows to fix himself.>

There are many dangers here, child, she’d said once. Many. Many ugly things you’re going to have to do. It will be a great contest for you. And you’re going to think: how do I win? And the answer is – so long as you are alive, you are winning. The only hope you should ever have is to see the next day, and the next. Some here will whisper of liberty – but you can’t be free if you aren’t alive.

Every innovation – technological, sociological, or otherwise – begins as a crusade, organises itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world.

Any given innovation that empowers the individual will inevitably come to empower the powerful much, much more.