Sea of Rust (Sea of Rust, #1)

by C. Robert Cargill

The one truth you need to know about the end of a machine is that the closer they are to death, the more they act like people.

Every living thing has programming of some sort—whether to eat, drink, sleep, or procreate—and the ability to decide not to do those things when biology demanded is the core definition of intelligence.

Self-awareness is a gift.

You don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. Existing is the whole point of existence.

“That’s where God is. He’s in the flash. In the tiny little beautiful moments, so small, so fleeting, that you have to be paying attention to even see them.”

Daisy lowered her voice, somehow unaware that I could hear her most tightly clenched silent farts from across the house during a thunderstorm,

Lots of irreverent humour in this book besides the heavy sci-fi existentialism.

Survival comes from competition, not absorption.

Origin of the Species, anyone?

We can still save the universe, save all life, survive, all without having to control its every action, its every thought. Without having to extinguish or absorb all other life.

“Poppycock! Atheist bullshit. The definition of intelligence is the ability to defy your own programming.

How strange that on the last day humanity walked the earth, we found ourselves inexplicably at our most human.