I felt warm and safe following her thin blue line.

It was unnerving at first, but then a relief.

Life is a math problem, and I had a calculator.

Until that moment, I had thought that the magic of the information age was that it allowed us to know more, but then I realized the magic of the information age is that it allows us to know less. It provides us with external cognitive servants — silicon memory systems, collaborative online filters, consumer preference algorithms and networked knowledge. We can burden these servants and liberate ourselves.

Online content? I have externalized it. Now I just log on to MemeStreams and it tells me what I like.

That's David Brooks.

That last part? I paraphrased, but he does end the column with a comment about memes.