You see, the laws of Nature have no scientific “disciplines.” For Nature, there’s no difference between “organic chemistry,” “cell biology,” or “botany.” A rose is a rose is a rose! Science at its best reveals the hidden laws of Nature. Scientific disciplines are political constructions by which scientists publish, get cited, educate their students, and grab some grant money

What technology could do is make it easier for people to escape from the “us” vs. “them” mentality that drive the media machines and give them the power to come to their own educated conclusions. It seems like a long shot, most days, but technology has the potential to infuse the volatile political landscape with knowledge, non-media mediated discourse and hopefully a little bit of compassion. Technological mediation has the potential to create a more permeable membrane between “them” and us”.

resembling Ursula LeGuin’s famous “Nine Lives” retooled into a rap song by M.I.A., then condensed into a Twitter feed to amuse Somali pirates, Sterling’s newest proves that when a cyberpunk is once truly plugged into the zeitgeist, the mere passage of twenty-five years does nothing to degrade his performance, relevance or wisdom

I like to imagine the Bay Area going almost completely silent but for the tapping of fingers. Because they’re all on Twitter, you see – but they’re all wearing a contact lens that projects a virtual keyboard under their right hands, and a wrist-strap that reads their hand movements, and the constant tapping is them banging out invisible 140-character posts. This will happen. Listen to me.