You don't get to cut that chain of evidence and start over. You're always going to be pursued by your data shadow, which is forming from thousands and thousands of little leaks and tributaries of information.
Interpretation
Our past digital actions continuously influence our future, as all information leaves traces behind.
This quote emphasizes the concept that our digital footprint is inescapable and accumulates over time from numerous sources of data. Bruce Sterling vividly illustrates that no matter how much we may want to forget or restart, the information we generate is like a shadow that accompanies us, composed of countless bits of data that reveal our habits, decisions, and identities.
In practice
In a talk on digital privacy, you might quote this to stress the importance of understanding our online actions.
If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, science fiction writers are its court jesters. We are Wise Fools who can leap, caper, utter prophecies, and scratch ourselves in public. We can play with Big Ideas because the garish motley of our pulp origins make us seem harmless.
Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes. THAT is cyberpunk.
When you can’t imagine how things are going to change, that doesn’t mean that nothing will change. It means that things will change in ways that are unimaginable.
Free software is software that respects your freedom and the social solidarity of your community. So it's free as in freedom.
An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in. Microsoft started with programming tools, but came out with an operating system. Oracle started doing contracts for the CIA. AOL started out as an online video gaming network.
I know there's a farmer out there somewhere who never wants a PC and that's fine with me.
All countries will eventually need to rebuild their growth models around digital technologies and the human capital that supports their deployment and expansion.
Stationary storage will be as big as the car business long term. The growth rate will probably be several times what it is for the car business.
I can't blame modern technology for my predilection for distraction, not after all the hours I've spent watching lost balloons disappear into the clouds. I did it before the Internet, and I'll do it after the apocalypse, assuming we still have helium and weak-gripped children.
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