Cultural References

“After all, this is why I am here, right? To dissect our relationship with technology as human beings. To understand the connections that we have amongst ourselves. And I’m sure there are a million different threads here. Endless possibilities to correlate, examine, and pursue our connections to make sense of it.” 

-Sam Noble in conversation with Q

“For the most part, we’re a very ‘new’ people. Every generation is somehow new, more thoroughly cut off from the past than the one that came before.”

“For the most part, we’re a very ‘new’ people. Every generation is somehow new, more thoroughly cut off from the past than the one that came before.”

"It’s not often that someone calls here, on my landline. Only a few people actually have this number – not including telemarketers. This is the main reason I have an answering machine. Everyone thinks it’s crazy, but just three-years ago I dropped al

"It’s not often that someone calls here, on my landline. Only a few people actually have this number – not including telemarketers. This is the main reason I have an answering machine. Everyone thinks it’s crazy, but just three-years ago I dropped all modern mobile telecommunication from my life. I use a flip-phone with basic SMS."

“International dialing is a costly luxury reserved for jet-setters. Interstate calls cost per-minute and innovative platforms even permit you to forego change at the public telephone booths –those still have rotary dials.”

“International dialing is a costly luxury reserved for jet-setters. Interstate calls cost per-minute and innovative platforms even permit you to forego change at the public telephone booths –those still have rotary dials.”

"A phonebook with numbers is still important. And the virtuous white and yellow pages give you all the necessary channels to maintain a household – from plumbing and fixing the boiler to ordering pizza – delivered right to your doorstep on a bi-annua

"A phonebook with numbers is still important. And the virtuous white and yellow pages give you all the necessary channels to maintain a household – from plumbing and fixing the boiler to ordering pizza – delivered right to your doorstep on a bi-annual basis."

"I pumped my Reeboks and moved around the office. I wasn’t sure what was in the coffee, but I felt hyped. Everything around me in this office smelled like mint. Not the herb, mint, but something fresh, like a new car or a new pair of sheets. I loved

"I pumped my Reeboks and moved around the office. I wasn’t sure what was in the coffee, but I felt hyped. Everything around me in this office smelled like mint. Not the herb, mint, but something fresh, like a new car or a new pair of sheets. I loved the sensation."

"Soon came Steve Jobs and his colorful dome-shaped desktops. A textbook example of consumer marketing – one for the ages. And don’t lose our context in time,” I added, “we’re definitely still in the era of videocassettes. We’re talking about physical

"Soon came Steve Jobs and his colorful dome-shaped desktops. A textbook example of consumer marketing – one for the ages. And don’t lose our context in time,” I added, “we’re definitely still in the era of videocassettes. We’re talking about physical home appliances for the common folk. The masses."

"Let’s just call it the ‘dial-up process’. It was remarkable. Completely novel. Sounds eternal. You were entering the binary and all your senses were encapsulated into these moments."

"Let’s just call it the ‘dial-up process’. It was remarkable. Completely novel. Sounds eternal. You were entering the binary and all your senses were encapsulated into these moments."

“Here you can be anyone. Or alternatively, they could be anyone. We’re all lesbians – even the 13/m with pimples in Kansas. The next day he can be someone else, too, like a 28/m from California with blonde-hair and a surfboard. It’s liberating…even d

“Here you can be anyone. Or alternatively, they could be anyone. We’re all lesbians – even the 13/m with pimples in Kansas. The next day he can be someone else, too, like a 28/m from California with blonde-hair and a surfboard. It’s liberating…even dangerous, but we’re jumping lightyears ahead."

“This malleable, plastic-coated, magnetic floppy disk. Its fate was rapidly being sealed into a more compact hard-disk around the same moments Reebok pump-shoes were starting to peak. Car-phones have arrived as well – a specific phone-line that ran t

“This malleable, plastic-coated, magnetic floppy disk. Its fate was rapidly being sealed into a more compact hard-disk around the same moments Reebok pump-shoes were starting to peak. Car-phones have arrived as well – a specific phone-line that ran through a system in your automobile, typically reserved for the Gatsby's and Wall Street type – but even those still had chords."

"Letters arrived in the mail that you wanted to read, even anticipated receiving. Pen-pals from another country. A lover from your summer-camp. You sent letters, too. Through the mail. Licking postage. Licking an envelope that never tasted good. Sens

"Letters arrived in the mail that you wanted to read, even anticipated receiving. Pen-pals from another country. A lover from your summer-camp. You sent letters, too. Through the mail. Licking postage. Licking an envelope that never tasted good. Sensations of times that were rapidly transforming without us even realizing it.”

“Let me put it like this. Do you remember our prehistoric symbol that ran the wooden telephone poles? Our soul-soothing voice from the Lion King and Field of Dreams – Mr. James Earl Jones of Bell Atlantic?”

“Let me put it like this. Do you remember our prehistoric symbol that ran the wooden telephone poles? Our soul-soothing voice from the Lion King and Field of Dreams – Mr. James Earl Jones of Bell Atlantic?”

“Modem’s got faster. Dial-up stages decreased. Households had separate phone lines. AOL went through upgrades – 4.0 and beyond. The academia got into it. Libraries carved out space for colorful domed Macintosh’s that contrasted beautifully with stack

“Modem’s got faster. Dial-up stages decreased. Households had separate phone lines. AOL went through upgrades – 4.0 and beyond. The academia got into it. Libraries carved out space for colorful domed Macintosh’s that contrasted beautifully with stacked-archives and wooden cabinets holding soon-to-be ancient precepts of the dewey-decimal system.”

"We were becoming physically trained. Velvet fabric draped over our hands, fingers on home keys, as we primed our neurons to fire on letters with intense accuracy. Grades were determined by speed and precision. We were on the front-line – digital-gra

"We were becoming physically trained. Velvet fabric draped over our hands, fingers on home keys, as we primed our neurons to fire on letters with intense accuracy. Grades were determined by speed and precision. We were on the front-line – digital-grade marines. We dominated the Altavista browsers and were already building SimCities of our own, leaving the dewey decimal system to witness its own demise. We didn’t blink an eye, either. Like I said, military-grade.”

“E-commerce arrived early-on. Ebay. Auctions for buying anything. Laser-pointers. Fleer Premier Michael Jordan rookie cards. A rare Tamagotchi. Encyclopedia sets. Original autographed posters of your favorite band with no certified stamps of authenti

“E-commerce arrived early-on. Ebay. Auctions for buying anything. Laser-pointers. Fleer Premier Michael Jordan rookie cards. A rare Tamagotchi. Encyclopedia sets. Original autographed posters of your favorite band with no certified stamps of authenticity. Money flowed in all directions. Equity trading popped-up, and pornography raged throughout the digital kingdom. Hackers wasted no time to prey – passwords, credit-card details, digital-identities.

"I could see Q. I could see her holding up the rubik's cube. Her slender pianist-like fingers pressed against the glass. I wondered what we would have spoken about in the days to come – there were still many bullet-points left in my marble notebook."

"I could see Q. I could see her holding up the rubik's cube. Her slender pianist-like fingers pressed against the glass. I wondered what we would have spoken about in the days to come – there were still many bullet-points left in my marble notebook."

I circled around to the other side of the desk and rested my palms on it. "And here is where it gets wild. Here is where our clothes are being ripped-off. No more dial-up. No more foreplay. We want the world and we want it now. Jim fucking Morrison s

I circled around to the other side of the desk and rested my palms on it. "And here is where it gets wild. Here is where our clothes are being ripped-off. No more dial-up. No more foreplay. We want the world and we want it now. Jim fucking Morrison style, baby. And in the name of all that is holy – did we get it.”

“Wow – I had no idea this existed,” said Q, pulling up the Wikipedia page about SimCity. “Simulated cities back in the 90s – this is so advanced.”

“Wow – I had no idea this existed,” said Q, pulling up the Wikipedia page about SimCity. “Simulated cities back in the 90s – this is so advanced.”

"In Africa. In China. India. Cambodia.Even in the middle of America. I’ve seen lines of people outside of factories in the bitter-winter mornings before the sun rises. I’ve seen the smoke coming out of their mouths with each breath. They are poor peo

"In Africa. In China. India. Cambodia.Even in the middle of America. I’ve seen lines of people outside of factories in the bitter-winter mornings before the sun rises. I’ve seen the smoke coming out of their mouths with each breath. They are poor people. How could I ever forget?”

"Like binary – let us try to simplify the elements. And like binary we were. Like binary we are. Being propelled through telephone wires and soon-to-be fiber optic cables at unimaginable latency. Human beings and our commuter-ways followed in perfect

"Like binary – let us try to simplify the elements. And like binary we were. Like binary we are. Being propelled through telephone wires and soon-to-be fiber optic cables at unimaginable latency. Human beings and our commuter-ways followed in perfect unison. Silver-dollar coin-slinging toll booths gave way to automated banking transactions. Express trains emerged with pulsating frequency during predictable commuter work-hours. New lines were built, extending to other spaces emerging on the fringes of the urban-hub."

“Wavelengths. AM/FM frequencies announcing declarations of war and peace. The ballgame. Advertisements for the newest invention call the air-conditioner. Families gathered around to listen. The radio is placed in the middle of the table. Everyone in

“Wavelengths. AM/FM frequencies announcing declarations of war and peace. The ballgame. Advertisements for the newest invention call the air-conditioner. Families gathered around to listen. The radio is placed in the middle of the table. Everyone in the family puts down their forks, even if the chicken dinner will go cold. Quiet down Jimmy, the president is about to speak.”

"I had always loved this island, but would come to realize that I was enamored with the history, rather than the inhabitants. I was convinced that the moment we put the first stones in the walls in New Amsterdam, this is when things started to go to

"I had always loved this island, but would come to realize that I was enamored with the history, rather than the inhabitants. I was convinced that the moment we put the first stones in the walls in New Amsterdam, this is when things started to go to shit. It took me a while to coexist with this sentiment – my beatnik soul remained along the Island footpaths that were etched by the feet and moccasins of the Natives. If you did that now along the Bowery, you would surely step on a syringe, if not dog shit."

I decided to get a haircut at a barbershop in the lobby of some corporate high-rise. “So what do you do, my friend,” asked my European barber just thirty-seconds into the cut. “I sell dog-biscuits,” I told him. He laughed out loud, and told his other

I decided to get a haircut at a barbershop in the lobby of some corporate high-rise. “So what do you do, my friend,” asked my European barber just thirty-seconds into the cut. “I sell dog-biscuits,” I told him. He laughed out loud, and told his other Eastern European friends in his loud voice. “You must be good at it,” he replied, “not many people get to wear Reebok pumps around here.”

"I did look pretty fresh. As fresh as a worn out Woody Allen could look. I still had most of my hair, though I was thinning in the back. I wasn’t overweight, despite not really doing any exercise. My teeth were white enough and I didn’t have cavities

"I did look pretty fresh. As fresh as a worn out Woody Allen could look. I still had most of my hair, though I was thinning in the back. I wasn’t overweight, despite not really doing any exercise. My teeth were white enough and I didn’t have cavities, despite not flossing nor going to the dentist in ten-years."

"Follow your interests to join the chess-club and you might just get married in a few years when your acne is gone. Library stack romance was real. Just as real as those drive-in romance scenes you find in the classics. You like mystery novels? So do

"Follow your interests to join the chess-club and you might just get married in a few years when your acne is gone. Library stack romance was real. Just as real as those drive-in romance scenes you find in the classics. You like mystery novels? So does that guy you might meet. These are real, not yet mothball smelling pages around you – even if you didn’t know how to navigate the Dewey decimal system, love would find you.”

"The point is that you could physically feel this culture. Particularly for those in the hormonal stages of life. An older cousin who handed you a sticky version of his manhood was welcomed. It was way more sensual than the narrative threads of dialo

"The point is that you could physically feel this culture. Particularly for those in the hormonal stages of life. An older cousin who handed you a sticky version of his manhood was welcomed. It was way more sensual than the narrative threads of dialogue on AOL 5.0 – that required a lot of imagination."

“I just don’t want your father to ask what you've learned, and all you have to show him is a clip of Howard Stern. I am just trying to make a very physical point here. And what is more sensual than an orgasm, right?”

“I just don’t want your father to ask what you've learned, and all you have to show him is a clip of Howard Stern. I am just trying to make a very physical point here. And what is more sensual than an orgasm, right?”

“For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness?”

“For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness?”

"A real Mick-Jagger of a performer who breaks the mold of everything we know in this world – from corporate culture to how humans engage with tangible goods. Steve Jobs and his minimalistic-zen, Palo Alto aura. A goddamn legend who took a small bite

"A real Mick-Jagger of a performer who breaks the mold of everything we know in this world – from corporate culture to how humans engage with tangible goods. Steve Jobs and his minimalistic-zen, Palo Alto aura. A goddamn legend who took a small bite out of the apple in the Garden of Eden knowing that he could have the entire tree and take Eve with him wherever he damn well pleased.”

This spectacled nerd was a hero for the math-club. He gave swagger to the pimply calculus kids of a generation. BG and his collar through the navy-blue wool-sweater smile was an inspiration for a subset of brilliant minds that would go on to be brill

This spectacled nerd was a hero for the math-club. He gave swagger to the pimply calculus kids of a generation. BG and his collar through the navy-blue wool-sweater smile was an inspiration for a subset of brilliant minds that would go on to be brilliant minds – and these brilliant minds would engineer the future of where we would continue to go as a generation. BG didn’t have so much starch on his collar. His spectacles were crystal clean – perfect vision."

“Blue-collars get the hard-labour grinding reputation that unions represent. There are formal associations for those guys. There is a metal-grinding, thick-fingered hard earned respect, too. Stories told through sunburnt wrinkles. Cool Hand Luke and

“Blue-collars get the hard-labour grinding reputation that unions represent. There are formal associations for those guys. There is a metal-grinding, thick-fingered hard earned respect, too. Stories told through sunburnt wrinkles. Cool Hand Luke and bar room brawls made blue-collar somewhat of a respectable, if not desirable character.”

"Accountants, secretaries, lawyers, civil servants, bus drivers, toll-booth operators and parking lot attendants – all turned into urban bandarillos. Let an iron rod be raised from the street in Bowling Green, holding a bronze cape to be held by anyo

"Accountants, secretaries, lawyers, civil servants, bus drivers, toll-booth operators and parking lot attendants – all turned into urban bandarillos. Let an iron rod be raised from the street in Bowling Green, holding a bronze cape to be held by anyone who aspires, even if for a moment, to manipulate the bull. Let not your generation forget these anonymous faces.”

“Blade-runner is becoming a classic, but Harrison Ford is still peaking as India Jones. We have modern day heroes, and we’re already forgetting what the ancient prophets said."

“Blade-runner is becoming a classic, but Harrison Ford is still peaking as India Jones. We have modern day heroes, and we’re already forgetting what the ancient prophets said."

“A quick glimpse into the future illuminates a scene. It is a beautiful paradise. An Eden, really. You can hear the surf and a light breeze carries a hint of saltwater. Sand gathers like silk between your bare toes and coconut flavoured water from a

“A quick glimpse into the future illuminates a scene. It is a beautiful paradise. An Eden, really. You can hear the surf and a light breeze carries a hint of saltwater. Sand gathers like silk between your bare toes and coconut flavoured water from a real coconut rests on a worn beachwood table where you are seated. You know what comes next, right?"

“Let us continue with this presumption that we have no idea how to stop bullets or bend the spoon. We clearly want to – but it is reserved for the rare and ever-mystical human – like that bald kid representing enlightenment. In reality our protagonis

“Let us continue with this presumption that we have no idea how to stop bullets or bend the spoon. We clearly want to – but it is reserved for the rare and ever-mystical human – like that bald kid representing enlightenment. In reality our protagonists were balding."

"In reality our protagonists were balding. Our suits were becoming worn and increasingly wrinkled by crowded passenger trains. Lipstick was continuously smeared on cardboard deli-coffee cups and the most mischievous kind of manipulation was happening

"In reality our protagonists were balding. Our suits were becoming worn and increasingly wrinkled by crowded passenger trains. Lipstick was continuously smeared on cardboard deli-coffee cups and the most mischievous kind of manipulation was happening to our most sacred of temples – we were losing time.”

"Nobody remembers the struggles of the white-collar. Nobody recalls the chemicals advertised to starch out the brown stains that gathered around their necks like a noose.”

"Nobody remembers the struggles of the white-collar. Nobody recalls the chemicals advertised to starch out the brown stains that gathered around their necks like a noose.”

“It’s heavier than I imagined,” she added, rolling it around in her hands and holding it out for me. “Do you want to ask it a question?” I took the magic eight-ball into my hands. “An original,” I said, “nice.” I thought for a moment. “Would our Foun

“It’s heavier than I imagined,” she added, rolling it around in her hands and holding it out for me. “Do you want to ask it a question?” I took the magic eight-ball into my hands. “An original,” I said, “nice.” I thought for a moment. “Would our Founding Fathers be happy with our current state-of-affairs?” I asked, shaking the eight-ball.

"In real life, fight-clubs popped-up everywhere – completely illegal and utterly idiotic. Very representative of our great-nation. Let’s take it literal and knock-out our goddamn dendrites. For crying out loud, I just wish Hamilton wasn’t killed in a

"In real life, fight-clubs popped-up everywhere – completely illegal and utterly idiotic. Very representative of our great-nation. Let’s take it literal and knock-out our goddamn dendrites. For crying out loud, I just wish Hamilton wasn’t killed in a duel so he could see it with his own eyes. Americans, where the fight-club mentality is ubiquitous, contagious and disease-ridden."

Like I said, most of us not yet in the corporate world knew the grand parade was there. We saw it coming. We could feel it vibrating through the cracks of adolescence. Unpaid internships. Alumni and faculty mentors. Media and headline news. Business

Like I said, most of us not yet in the corporate world knew the grand parade was there. We saw it coming. We could feel it vibrating through the cracks of adolescence. Unpaid internships. Alumni and faculty mentors. Media and headline news. Business clubs, nepotism and professional associations. Dustin Hoffman style family gatherings: “I just want to say one word to you. Are you listening? Just one word.”

"Pagers were still hanging around on belts, but being marginalised to drug-dealers and medical professionals. A sub-culture of mobile devices was gradually emerging, but the answering machine and busy signals were not yet extinct. Call waiting was a

"Pagers were still hanging around on belts, but being marginalised to drug-dealers and medical professionals. A sub-culture of mobile devices was gradually emerging, but the answering machine and busy signals were not yet extinct. Call waiting was a premium add-on."

"Now, we won’t get into the overall analysis of why email is so significant, but let’s just say we were losing our taste buds for licking envelopes. Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster of the United States of America, and inventor, would have a l

"Now, we won’t get into the overall analysis of why email is so significant, but let’s just say we were losing our taste buds for licking envelopes. Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster of the United States of America, and inventor, would have a lot to say about this new era of exchanging correspondence.”

“The wheel is still with us today. In fact, there are probably billions of them. From two-to-eighteen wheelers. And another million variations. And billions of dollars that have been poured into producing them. And hundreds of billions of dollars bui

“The wheel is still with us today. In fact, there are probably billions of them. From two-to-eighteen wheelers. And another million variations. And billions of dollars that have been poured into producing them. And hundreds of billions of dollars built on top of the wheel – from exhaust pipes to jet-fuel. Look how far these wheels have gotten-us – pretty far right? We can literally drive cross-country for tens of thousands of miles without losing an axel along the Oregon trail. A long way from the horse and carriage, don’t you think?”

“An equal amount of gaps were beginning to emerge between periods and subject-matter responsibilities. These gaps were filled in subtle forms that emerged from physical hardware. You could find people sneakily playing snake on a Nokia phone and we wo

“An equal amount of gaps were beginning to emerge between periods and subject-matter responsibilities. These gaps were filled in subtle forms that emerged from physical hardware. You could find people sneakily playing snake on a Nokia phone and we would soon be sent off to University with a new invention called the iPod.”

“Whitman portrayed candid displays of sensual pleasures during a time where it was ubiquitously immoral. He would have been an Instagram star, you know? If only he didn’t pass away before the invention of the automobile.”

“Whitman portrayed candid displays of sensual pleasures during a time where it was ubiquitously immoral. He would have been an Instagram star, you know? If only he didn’t pass away before the invention of the automobile.”

"Infrastructure was built upon infrastructure upon infrastructure upon bedrock. No different from the materials of Tetris, technology and progress would rain down on us incessantly – and all of us, the gamers, were optimizing our talent to strengthen

"Infrastructure was built upon infrastructure upon infrastructure upon bedrock. No different from the materials of Tetris, technology and progress would rain down on us incessantly – and all of us, the gamers, were optimizing our talent to strengthen foundations. Making more space for progress. Progress begets progress"

"I placed my marble notebook on the table. It was getting worn-in. I loved that. This hadn’t happened for at least a decade. When the marble begins to bend. It’s similar to the transformation that a leather-hard baseball-mitt, or a new couch, goes

"I placed my marble notebook on the table. It was getting worn-in. I loved that. This hadn’t happened for at least a decade. When the marble begins to bend. It’s similar to the transformation that a leather-hard baseball-mitt, or a new couch, goes through. It gets better with time. It is tailored for you."

"I was an old-world romantic just like my Dell desktop, anchored to the past but present – still functional enough."

"I was an old-world romantic just like my Dell desktop, anchored to the past but present – still functional enough."

“Well, we will leave the romantics as romantics – the Shakespearian letter lickers and beatnik poets that still hung onto Kerouac ways of engagement. They aren’t even a sub-culture of people. It is a fading class that is too large to be confined to a

“Well, we will leave the romantics as romantics – the Shakespearian letter lickers and beatnik poets that still hung onto Kerouac ways of engagement. They aren’t even a sub-culture of people. It is a fading class that is too large to be confined to a subculture just yet – they still have sovereignty. The subcultures were the ones behind the binary. These were the chess-club, computer science, pencil-pointers that not too long ago had terrible acne and voice-cracking reticence. And you remember what happened to this subculture, right?”

"You might have enjoyed Hunter S. Thompson’s life on a beach as a journalist. It might have inspired you to become a real-life Sheriff, too. You can stay mainstream and take the trip to Vegas with him, alright, but you would be missing the point if y

"You might have enjoyed Hunter S. Thompson’s life on a beach as a journalist. It might have inspired you to become a real-life Sheriff, too. You can stay mainstream and take the trip to Vegas with him, alright, but you would be missing the point if you didn’t listen to what he was saying about being a malcontent.”

"As we’ve said earlier, most of these ‘pleasure seeking sources’ are one-way conversations that we digested. Even professional sports – in the flesh professional sports – we are observers and members of the audience. Sure we feel engaged, and we deri

"As we’ve said earlier, most of these ‘pleasure seeking sources’ are one-way conversations that we digested. Even professional sports – in the flesh professional sports – we are observers and members of the audience. Sure we feel engaged, and we derived great pleasure from these spectacles all through the ages – from gladiators battling to the death in Rome to Drake performing live at Madison Square Garden. Spectacles build camaraderie. Camaraderie cultivates communities. Communities power industries and commerce. All pleasure does this. This is a constant.”

“Thomas Jefferson was an idealist with eloquent prose. He sparked a revolution and declared independence for a nation – but how could he know that muskets would turn into AK-47 rifles? Sure, we all know what Hitler did was wrong, so of course we shou

“Thomas Jefferson was an idealist with eloquent prose. He sparked a revolution and declared independence for a nation – but how could he know that muskets would turn into AK-47 rifles? Sure, we all know what Hitler did was wrong, so of course we should scorch this into our global consciences so as not to let it happen again. Now the bikini – that’s as close as we’re getting in our theme for a fluid invention of the past."

“Sir Isaac Newton defined gravity. Zuckerberg invented a big-blue thumbs-up.”

“Sir Isaac Newton defined gravity. Zuckerberg invented a big-blue thumbs-up.”

"Remember, there were plugs. We still had flip-phones. If someone said the word ‘app’ you would think about a caprese salad, mozzarella sticks or oysters. Those were apps."

"Remember, there were plugs. We still had flip-phones. If someone said the word ‘app’ you would think about a caprese salad, mozzarella sticks or oysters. Those were apps."

"We told our parents who didn’t understand. Parents who didn’t understand told their cousins and our grandparents. Our grandparents told nobody, and nobody told everybody. The deceased were brought back to life and they told the living. The living to

"We told our parents who didn’t understand. Parents who didn’t understand told their cousins and our grandparents. Our grandparents told nobody, and nobody told everybody. The deceased were brought back to life and they told the living. The living told Mahatma Gandhi who didn’t really have much to say and just waved his hand. But his hand told the bird, who sang a sweet melody to the sun. And the sun declared to the earth through eternal light beams that forever the world would be changed. These are the basic and most fundamental elements governing what we call ‘the network effect’.”

“You see, that thumb, Chuck’s thumb, was the most culturally significant polex of all primates. This thick first digit of the human hand was known almost universally during my times, and was anatomically connected to the sunburned cowboy smile of one

“You see, that thumb, Chuck’s thumb, was the most culturally significant polex of all primates. This thick first digit of the human hand was known almost universally during my times, and was anatomically connected to the sunburned cowboy smile of one of the most admirable mainstream heroes to walk the earth. Mr. Chuck Norris.”

"We were swimming ecstatically in a sea of blue-ocean thumbs. A universe of connections happening in the most primordial way. Like making fire or pressing wine. All cultures and languages would soon know how to get ‘the like’. With each ‘like’ came a

"We were swimming ecstatically in a sea of blue-ocean thumbs. A universe of connections happening in the most primordial way. Like making fire or pressing wine. All cultures and languages would soon know how to get ‘the like’. With each ‘like’ came another potential connection. A portal to a new community or uncharted digital territory. There were seemingly no limits. It was an infinite space for discoveries that pushed each of us into a never ending universe of social pleasure."

"We had Craigslist. eBay was still around and new forms of doorstep deliveries were just emerging. We still had to call the local Chinese restaurant to place our orders from the paper menu stuffed in our drawer. Social. There is no such thing as soci

"We had Craigslist. eBay was still around and new forms of doorstep deliveries were just emerging. We still had to call the local Chinese restaurant to place our orders from the paper menu stuffed in our drawer. Social. There is no such thing as social media. You still needed media and we were just getting social."

“Selfies didn’t exist yet. Neither did the locals who tried to sell you a modern day apparatus that facilitates them. They were still selling international calling-cards and books about the Burmese Days. Not all mobile appliances fit neatly into the

“Selfies didn’t exist yet. Neither did the locals who tried to sell you a modern day apparatus that facilitates them. They were still selling international calling-cards and books about the Burmese Days. Not all mobile appliances fit neatly into the palm of your hands or pockets. Capturing life and time in the real-world required several stages of processing. We were still in the dial-up phases of mobile technology – several steps before information and media entered the binary. But once it did, boy did it feel good – and of course we were rewarded.”

"The modern day Medici benefactors, also known as institutional banking and venture capitalists, were aggressively fueling this progress. Our insatiable appetite for pleasure was compounding this progress. And our Mount Silicon heroes were welcoming

"The modern day Medici benefactors, also known as institutional banking and venture capitalists, were aggressively fueling this progress. Our insatiable appetite for pleasure was compounding this progress. And our Mount Silicon heroes were welcoming new world pioneers to the fertile valleys below. And these westward-bound entrepreneurs and visionaries flew high-above the granite peaks of Mount Rushmore. Our forefathers could barely strain their rigid necks to look – left to wonder and debate into eternity the fate of our manifest destiny.”

"Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backwards, and then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers. And you, vast sea, sleepless mother, who alone are peace and freedom to the river and stream

"Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backwards, and then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers. And you, vast sea, sleepless mother, who alone are peace and freedom to the river and stream, only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade, and then shall I come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.”