It was possible at last to hear the silence—to appreciate that there was a silence, deep and potent, out there beyond the pretension of the light. - Robert Charles Wilson

Is there any evidence to the contrary? I don’t need certainty in order to act on a well-founded suspicion.

They allow us access to the experience of the past—the only kind of time machine we are ever likely to have.

There was no mind in back of those words, Ethan reminded himself. Nothing but a series of highly-evolved algorithms aimed as achieving a strategic result. Engaging in dialogue with such a creature was no more useful than trying to fend off a scorpion by quoting Voltaire.