The Great Geek Manual

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.

- “The Coming Technological Singularity” by Vernor Vinge, 1993.

What causes us the most misery and pain… has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers. The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is… a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most need to confront — spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future.

- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, 1985.

The Benedictine monks who invented the mechanical clock in the 12th and 13th centuries believed that such a clock would provide a precise regularity to the seven periods of devotion… here is a great paradox: the clock was invented by men who wanted to devote themselves more rigorously to God; and it ended as the technology of greatest use to men who wished to devote themselves to the accumulation of money. Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. …Gutenberg thought his invention would advance the cause of the Holy Roman See, whereas in fact, it turned out to bring a revolution which destroyed the monopoly of the Church.

- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, 1985.

A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided. The invention of the printing press is an excellent example. Printing fostered the modern idea of individuality but it destroyed the medieval sense of community and social integration. Printing created prose but made poetry into an exotic and elitist form of expression. Printing made modern science possible but transformed religious sensibility into an exercise in superstition. Printing assisted in the growth of the nation-state but, in so doing, made patriotism into a sordid if not a murderous emotion. Another way of saying this is that a new technology tends to favor some groups of people and harms other groups. School teachers, for example, will, in the long run, probably be made obsolete by television, as blacksmiths were made obsolete by the automobile, as balladeers were made obsolete by the printing press. Technological change, in other words, always results in winners and losers.

- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, 1985.

No mysteries are sacrosanct, no limits unquestionable; the unknown will yield to the ingenious mind. We seek to understand the universe, not to tremble before mystery, as we continue to learn and grow and enjoy our lives ever more.

- “The Extropian Principles Version 3.0” by Max More, 1998.

Give me a laboratory, and I will raise the world.

- “Give me a laboratory, and I will raise the world” by Bruno Latour, 1983.

Now, anyone with a computer and connectivity has the means to air his voice, his opinion, his own authorship and authority. Seen this way, Internet technology may be more an outgrowth of cultural rebelliousness than a cause of it. In a skeptical world in which authority has often failed, in an increasingly democratic world in which everyone is privileged, and, alas, in a narcissistic world in which many people feel the need to launch their egos, collaborative art is a radical rebuke that allows no one to be privileged above anyone else, no single art object to be a product of one sensibility, and no gatekeepers to tell us what is and isn’t art. In effect, Wiki-Culture sends the peasants marching on the virtual Winter Palace.

- “Essay: Technology changes how art is created and perceived” by Neal Gabler, June 6, 2010.
First published in the L.A. Times.

Let me tell you this: If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.

- My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, 2004.