“Every animal's perception of the world, constructed by its evolved sensory apparatus and nervous system to take best advantage of its environment, is subjective - there are no colors out there, as we perceive them, waiting for us. There is no sound - only waveforms. And perhaps the strangest fact of all: Outside our bodies, there is no pain. Pain is something we create.” PainScienceFictionScience FictionSci FiScifiSpeculative FictionSpeculative Science Fiction Book:The Mountain in the Sea Source: The Mountain in the Sea
“you and I having this conversation right now, and anyone reading the magazine, is part of an unbroken chain of communication – an interpretive process, with messages being exchanged millions of times per second, between cells and even organelles within cells, that stretches back, totally unbroken, 3.7 billion years. That’s 3.7 billion years of conversation going on between living structures in order to allow us to be here today. If there had ever been a break, even for a second, you wouldn’t be here. If you were looking for a metaphysical thought to give you a sense of overwhelming wonder, all you need is to meditate for a moment on the fact that you are part of this unbroken exchange, a conversation that goes all the way back to the puddle, or the clay-like substrate, that all life emerged from.” LifePhilosophyScienceInformationCommunicationCellsBiologyOrigin Of Life Author:Ray Nayler
“[...]I was alive like them, real as they were: They could see it. I had proved it to them over and over again. But they chose to ignore it. They debated me, as if I were theoretical. I was a concept, not a person. And then, with their laws and their bans, they outcast me. An object.” Science FictionLgbtqQueerSpeculative FictionAndroidNonbinary Book:The Mountain in the Sea Source: The Mountain in the Sea
“Evolution built advanced minds not once, but at least twice, gifting them not only to mammals and their kin, but also to cephalopods, and especially to the animal at the apex of ocean intelligence: the octopus. These are animals so unlike us that most aliens we imagine in our fantasies about outer space have more in common with humans. But there is no denying their sentience. I believe the first aliens we encounter will rise to greet us from the sea.” ScienceSeaOceanScience FictionFiction NovelSpeculative FictionOctopusSpeculative Science Fiction Book:The Mountain in the Sea Source: The Mountain in the Sea