Unlike the animals, who knew only the present, Man had acquired a past; and he was beginning to grope toward a future. - Arthur C. Clarke

There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places... We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality... It's a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can't think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality.

Through long and bitter experience, Rajasinghe had learned never to trust first impressions, but also never to ignore them.

It is a good principle in science not to believe any 'fact' — -however well attested — -until it fits into some accepted frame of reference. Occasionally, of course, an observation can shatter the frame and force the construction of a new one, but that is extremely rare. Galileos and Einsteins seldom appear more than once per century, which is just as well for the equanimity of mankind.