Quotes from book
Learning the World

Learning the World

Learning the World is a science fiction novel by British writer Ken MacLeod, published in 2005. It won the 2006 Prometheus Award, was nominated for the Hugo, Locus, Clarke, and Campbell Awards that same year, and received a BSFA nomination in 2005. Since the book's publication MacLeod has written two short stories set in the same universe, "Lighting Out" and "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?".


Ken MacLeod photo

““Anyway… I find what you write interesting.”
“That’s what people usually say when they disagree with it.””

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 7 “Television” (p. 110)

Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo

“All life is a struggle for existence. Why should it cease to be a struggle if it spreads among the stars?”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 14 “The Extraordinary and Remarkable Ship” (p. 239)

Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo

“I’m sure they’ll come up with all kinds of rationalizations, if the human precedent is anything to go by.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 17 “Fire in the Sky” (p. 284)

Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo

“I take small interest in politics,” he said. “The subject repels me.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 14 “The Extraordinary and Remarkable Ship” (p. 232)

Ken MacLeod photo

“She knew about these asteroids, of course. It was because she had classified them in the wrong mental category that she hadn’t thought of them.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 15 “Hollow Spaces of the Forward Cone” (p. 249)

Ken MacLeod photo

“Of all the sciences, astronomy was the one the superstitious liked least.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 4 “A Moving Point of Light” (p. 51)

Ken MacLeod photo

“Darvin listened to the hymn with a mixture of enjoyment of its beauty and disdain of its content.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 16 “The Anomalies Room” (p. 273)

Ken MacLeod photo

“It saddened him that military technology was so much more advanced than he’d ever imagined.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 8 “Security Concerns” (p. 122)

Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo
Ken MacLeod photo

“We’re in danger of losing the ship generation.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

“I’m aware of the problems,” she said. “‘You can’t tell the boys from the girls, they have no respect for their elders, their user interfaces are garish and unwieldy, everybody is writing a book, and their music is just noise.’ Found scratched on a potsherd in Sumer.”
Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 15 “Hollow Spaces of the Forward Cone” (p. 248)

Ken MacLeod photo

“Anyway…I find what you write interesting.”

Ken MacLeod book Learning the World

“That’s what people usually say when they disagree with it.”
Source: Learning the World (2005), Chapter 7 “Television” (p. 110)

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