This Is Every Writer's Nightmare

Once Upon A Time ... The Only Autonomous Intelligences We Humans Knew Of Were Us Humans. We Thought Then That If Humankind Ever Devised Another Intelligence That It Would Be The Result Of A Huge Project ... A Great Mass Of Silicon And Ancient Transistors And Chips And Circuit Boards ... A Machine With Lots Of Networking Circuits, In Other Words, Aping-if You Will Pardon The Expression-the Human Brain In Form And Function. Of Course, Ais Did Not Evolve That Way. They Sort Of Slipped Into Existence When We Humans Were Looking The Other Way.

Evolution Brings Human Beings. Human Beings, Through A Long And Painful Process, Bring Humanity.

A Hero. You Want To Be One Of Those Rare Human Beings Who Make History, Rather Than Merely Watch It Flow Around Them Like Water Around A Rock.

There's A Unique Bond Of Trust Between Readers And Authors That I Don't Believe Exists In Any Other Art Form; As A Reader, I Trust A Novelist To Give Me His Or Her Best Effort, However Flawed.

I Now Understand The Need For Faith - Pure, Blind, Fly-in-the-face-of-reason Faith - As A Small Life Preserver In The Wild And Endless Sea Of A Universe Ruled By Unfeeling Laws And Totally Indifferent To The Small, Reasoning Beings That Inhabit It.