What you encountered was an abomination, a military intelligence. It was designed to be insidious and spiteful and inimical to life, and it wasn’t sm… - Alastair Reynolds

But you seem so nonchalant about it all," Teal said.
Merlin pondered this for a few seconds. "Do you think being not nonchalant would make any difference? I don't know that it would. We're here in the moment, aren't we? And the moment will have its way with us, no matter how we feel about things."
"Fatalist."
"Cheerful realist. There's a distinction.

Rashmika could tell when anyone around her was lying. But seeing through her own deceptions was another matter entirely.

I can't tell you how much happier I'd be meeting a bunch of artificial intelligences if I also happened to have one on my side." "Can we drop the 'artificial intelligence'? It's a bit like me calling you a meat-based processing system.