Jaron Lanier, whose new book is "destined to become a must-read": Web 2.0 is a formula to kill the middle class and undo centuries of social progress.
Boomer Pinches: To the Editor: I very much enjoyed the first 140 characters of David Carr's article, "Why Twitter Will Endure."
Lanier: I am amazed by the power of the collective to enthrall people to the point of blindness.
Jose Saramago: If only all life's deceptions were like this one, and all they had to do was to come to some agreement, Number two is mine, yours is number three, let that be understood once and for all, Were it not for the fact that we're blind this mix-up would never have happened, You're right, our problem is that we're blind.
Lanier: Collectivists confuse ideology with achievement.
David Kilcullen: People don't get pushed into rebellion by their ideology. They get pulled in by their social networks.
Jean-Luc Godard: It's not where you take things from -- it's where you take them to.
Lanier: To be constantly diffused in a global mush is to embrace mundanity.
Michael Agger: The Web hasn't lost flavor; you've lost flavor.
Decius: It's the sameness of the familiar that closes minds.
Dave Winer: I'm sure that's the future. Might be horrible but we're already almost there.
Freeman Dyson: The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people's hopes.
Steve Bellovin et al: Architecture matters a lot, and in subtle ways.
Rivka Galchen: I recalled hearing tell from my father of a time not so long ago when the term "technological fix" didn't sound dirty and delusional. When my dad was young, Buckminster Fuller and scientists like him were crusaders of the left, heroically engaged in ushering in an utter transformation of society. The humbly engineered new world order would be one of less waste, more justice, less suffering, domed town halls built out of Venetian blinds, and, just maybe, plastic living rooms that happier housewives could simply wash down with a hose. The technological aspirations were well-diagrammed, beautiful, and ludicrous.
Viktor Chernomyrdin: We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto | 
