Status Updates From Diaspora

"We've all chosen to stay on Earth, we've chosen to remain organic...but we're still drifting apart - probably faster than any of you in the polises." - evolution is a much consequence of a changing enviroment as it is of genetic change.

"The orphan had learnt to call the fourth citizen 'I' or 'me' rather 'Yatima', but that was just grammar, not selfawareness." - pretty sure self awareness precedes the first person singular, is Egan trying to say something about the development of citizens differing from that of fleshers?