“Each big idea like that is an operating system upgrade," she says, smiling. Comfortable territory. "Writers are responsible for some of it. They say Shakespeare invented the internal monologue."Oh, I am very familiar with the internal monologue."But I think the writers had their turn," she says, "and now it's programmers who get to upgrade the human operating system."I am definitely talking to a girl from Google. "So what's the next upgrade?""It's already happening," she says. "There are all these things you can do, and it's like you're in more than one place at one time, and it's totally normal. I mean, look around."I swivel my head, and I see what she wants me to see: dozens of people sitting at tiny tables, all learning into phones showing them places that don't exist and yet are somehow more interesting...”
Robin Sloan“The internet: always proving that you're not quite as special as you suspected.”
Robin Sloan, Sourdough“Its circumference was tiny, but he had a life, and he would not give it up.”
Robin Sloan, The Writer and the Witch“A fellowship of secret scholars spent five hundred years on this task. Now we're penciling it in for a Friday morning.”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore“I always thought the key to immortality would be, like, tiny robots fixing things in your brain,” she says. “Not books.”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore“The nature of immortality is a mystery,' he says, speaking so softly that we have to lean closer to hear.' But everything I know of writing and reading tells me that this is true. I have felt it in these shelves and in others.”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore“Now, for the first time in my life, I empathize 100 percent with Fluff McFly. My heart is beating at hamster-speed and I am throwing my eyes around the room, looking for some way out.”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore“What if, you know—what if hanging out with Griffo Gerritszoon wasn’t always that great? What if he was weird and dreamy? What if the best part of him was the shapes he could make with metal? That part of him really is immortal. It’s as immortal as anything’s going to get.”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore“When every single piece of media you consume is time-shifted, does that mean it's actually you that's time-shifted?”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore“There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care.”
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore