A person who thinks he learns science from science fiction is like one who thinks he learns history from historical novels, and he deserves what he g… - Joe Haldeman

“We’re inferring from an absence of data,” Jacque said. “That’s lousy science.”

Human nature does change, and the fact that we’ve developed tools to direct that change is quintessentially human. And it must be a nearly universal concomitant to technological growth everywhere in the universe; otherwise there would be no universe. Unless we’re the only technological intelligence in the universe, Julian pointed out; so far there’s no evidence to the contrary. Maybe our own existence is evidence that we’re the first creatures to evolve far enough to hit the reset button. Somebody does have to be first.
But maybe the first is always the last.

Nobody else in that platoon can tell a Hamiltonian from a hamburger.