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  "text": "“It was a ploy, Jaar. I was trying to manipulate you, to get you to fight, to make you do what I wanted you to do.”\n\n“I know that.” He smiled. “Of course I know that. But the motives behind your words don’t reduce their truth. Don’t you see that?”",
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      "text": "Human consciousness was an artificial thing. Once humans had believed that gods animated their souls, fighting their battles in the guise of humans. Later they had evolved the idea of the self-aware, self-directed consciousness. Now Michael saw that it had all been no more than an idea, a model, an illusion behind which to hide.\n\nHe, the last man, need no longer cling to such outmoded comforts.\n\nThere was no cognition, he realized. There was only perception.",
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      "text": "It’s all a bit anarchic, I suppose, but it’s also highly effective. Flexible, responsive, mobile, heuristic, with intelligence distributed to the lowest level...A bit like an ideal human society, I suppose; free individuals seeking out ways to advance the common good.",
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      "text": "But you are a scientist, Michael Poole; and the skill of a scientist is in asking the right question.",
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