The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2 Quotes

“The data center of the future would have just one man in it, Jimmy said, and one dog. The man’s job was to feed the dog. The dog’s job was to make sure the man didn’t touch anything.”
― Allan Kaster, The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2

“relate some tragedy from the news and express your sad-eyed care, and soon enough, other people’s suffering becomes about you. You convey with raised eyebrow or warped lips that you’re owed some measure of the deference and compassion that the victims are.”
― Allan Kaster, The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2

“The right thing.” Who could know what that was? Imagine all the damned souls who believed they had done the right thing. Who may in fact have done the right thing, and found themselves damned anyway.”
― Allan Kaster, The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2

“Who will take care of your heart and soul? He shrugged. She pointed at him. You will. Promise me. He’d promised, but he wasn’t sure he knew how. He could take care of himself, but that was mere survival. The self is not the soul. The soul is what you were as a child, until you learned to protect it, enclosing that fluttering, vulnerable moth in the fist of the self.”
― Allan Kaster, The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2

“Much as you might hate to admit it, the insects and bacteria got it right. Intelligence—conscious intelligence like yours—is one of evolution’s dead ends. A failed survival strategy. It gets you where you’re going too quickly for your DNA to catch up.”
― Allan Kaster, The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2

“You like to think your intelligence is in control, but it’s really nothing but a tool your DNA evolved to help it accomplish what it wants.”
― Allan Kaster, The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2