Yet because they did not know one another, and could not understand one another, and dared not trust one another, and felt from infancy the terrors a… - Isaac Asimov

If, from a distance of seven thousand parsecs, the fall of Kalgan to the armies of the Mule had produced reverberations that had excited the curiosity of an old Trader, the apprehension of a dogged captain, and the annoyance of a meticulous mayor – to those on Kalgan itself, it produced nothing and excited no one. It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus. It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned.

In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/61942.Hamilton" rel="nofollow noopener" title="Hamilton">Hamilton</a>'s The Universe Wreckers... it was in that novel that, for the first time, I learned Neptune had a satellite named Triton... It was from
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4823723.The_Drums_of_Tapajos" rel="nofollow noopener" title="The Drums of Tapajos">The Drums of Tapajos</a>
that I first learned there was a Mato Grosso area in the Amazon basin. It was from
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12048865.The_Black_Star_Passes" rel="nofollow noopener" title="The Black Star Passes">The Black Star Passes</a>
and other stories by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4503177.John_W__Campbell" rel="nofollow noopener" title="John W. Campbell">John W. Campbell</a> that I first heard of relativity.

The pleasure of reading about such things in the dramatic and fascinating form of science fiction gave me a push toward science that was irresistible. It was science fiction that made me want to be a scientist strongly enough to eventually make me one.

That is not to say that science fiction stories can be completely trusted as a source of specific knowledge... However, the misguidings of science fiction can be unlearned. Sometimes the unlearning process is not easy, but it is a low price to pay for the gift of fascination over science.

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.