I was looking at the oak and recognizing the acorn. - James S. A. Corey

There was no amount of double-checking that would ever prove that nothing had been missed.

If they kill us all, Drummer thought, this will be why. Not their technology, not their strategy, not the invisible cycle of history. It’ll be our inability to do anything without five committee meetings to talk about it.

Writing science fiction is a race between the author's imagination and the progress of science and history. Fiction is always on the losing end; the question is only how fast.