The trouble is, if you go too far towards being polite, the label that applies is "doormat". Charles Stross More Quotes by Charles Stross More Quotes From Charles Stross I suspect losing paper maps but gaining GPS and online maps is a similar step function: maps still exist, but they're vastly more useful, not to say permanently up to date, in their new form. Again, I won't be shedding any tears, but I'll keep a paper road atlas in the back of my car for another few years, I think, Just In Case. Charles Stross gps years thinking We are Bay Aryans from Berkeley: prepare to be reengineered in an attractive range of color schemes for your safety and comfort! Charles Stross safety color comfort Christmas: the one time of year when you can’t avoid the nuts in your family muesli. Charles Stross one-time nuts years Contract law is essentially a defensive scorched-earth battleground where the constant question is, "if my business partner was possessed by a brain-eating monster from beyond spacetime tomorrow, what is the worst thing they could do to me?" Charles Stross business law brain I'm an individual. I do not want to get into a pissing match with an organization that is a de-facto gigadollar-turnover multinational! Charles Stross individual organization want Humans are just barely intelligent tool users; Darwinian evolutionary selection stopped when language and tool use converged, leaving the average hairy meme carrier sadly deficient in smarts. Charles Stross smart intelligent average To boldly go where no uploaded metahuman colony has gone before' has a certain ring to it, doesn't it? Charles Stross certain rings gone One ape's hallucination is another ape's religious experience - it just depends on which one’s god module is overactive at the time. Charles Stross hallucinations apes religious Humans: such a brilliant model of emotional self-awareness. Charles Stross brilliant emotional self --but I find her personality annoying. It's like being molested by a sleeping bag that speaks in Comic Sans with little love-hearts over the i's. Charles Stross personality sleep heart Lawyers do not mix with diplomacy. Charles Stross diplomacy lawyer A dark-skinned human with four arms walks toward me across the floor of the club, clad only in a belt strung with human skulls. Charles Stross four skulls dark Humans are not as unsophisticated as mulch wrigglers, they can see the writing on the wall. Is it any surprise, that among the ones who look outward, the real debate is not over whether to run, but over how far and how fast? Charles Stross wall real running Personal pride is probably a bad guide to merit. Charles Stross merit guides pride Steampunk is nothing more than what happens when Goths discover brown. Charles Stross steampunk goth brown You'll still get guys with an array of badges to demonstrate their importance, but that just excludes people. I think fandom is more inclusive now. Charles Stross guy people thinking Fatal accidents never happen because of just one mistake. It takes a whole chain of stupids lining up just so to put a full stop at the end of an epitaph. Charles Stross chains ends mistake I like lassic British spy thrillers. Seriously. If the cold war was still on, that's something I'd be writing. Charles Stross spy writing war [Core concepts: Human beings all have souls. Souls are software objects. Software is not immortal.] Charles Stross immortal software soul Where would dictators be without our compliant amnesia? Make the collective lose its memory, you can conceal anything. Charles Stross amnesia dictator memories