That's the method: restructure the world we live in in some way, then see what happens.

I don't think the scientific method and the science fictional method are really analogous. The thing about them is that neither is really practiced very much, at least not consciously. But the fact that they are methodical does relate them.

They were two lovely choices. One of them meant giving up every chance of a decent life forever...and the other one scared me out of my mind.

Stephen Hawking said he spent most of his first couple of years at Cambridge reading science fiction (and I believe that, because his grades weren't all that great).

My first thought was always a cigarette. It still is, but I haven't cheated.

Anyway, that's what life is, just one learning experience after another, and when you're through with all the learning experiences you graduate and what you get for a diploma is, you die.