Termination Shock

by Neal Stephenson

We don’t see those parts because we prefer to build our habitations in more hospitable areas. Which are rare. We come to think of Connecticut, Florida, France, and all that as how the world is. Places like this being aberrations. Thing is, geology don’t care about our convenience and so it puts the oil and the minerals in locations that are truly random.

“That’s one way people were defined as savages: by their willingness to let that kind of performative display affect the outcome of battle for real.”