The computer has freed man’s brain.

But computers did not go hand by bloody hand across The Clivorn’s crags. Only a living man, stupid enough to wonder, to drudge for knowledge on his knees. To risk. To experience. To be lonely.

No cheap way.

— James Tiptree Jr., “And I Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways”, Warm Worlds and Otherwise (1975)

This quote is from my favourite short story by science fiction writer Alice Sheldon, under her pseudonym James Tiptree Jr.

For me, it’s about daring to experience the wonders of life for oneself. Maybe there are some wonders you don’t care much for, but the ones you do are worth pursuing. We only get one life—and, so far, no one’s gotten out of it alive—so, might as well use it in a way most meaningful to you.