The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it.
John Perry BarlowRead
With the development of the Internet...we are in the middle of the most transforming technological event since the capture of fire. I used to think that it was just the biggest thing since Gutenberg, but now I think you have to go back farther.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The Internet represents a fundamental change in human communication and culture, akin to the discovery of fire.
John Perry Barlow emphasizes the transformative impact of the Internet, comparing it not only to historical milestones like the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg but raising it to the level of fire itself. This statement suggests that the Internet has fundamentally altered human existence and interaction, reshaping societies in profound ways never before seen in history.
Themes
InternetTechnologyTransformationCommunicationFireGutenberg
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation, one might quote Barlow to illustrate the importance of adapting to technological advancements.
More from John Perry Barlow
All quotes →The Internet may well disempower the nation state, but at the same time, it also strengthens certain specific state functions - like surveillance. As a political entity, it doesn't empower the nation sate. It creates the availability of much more data than the digestive system of the nation state could possibly assimilate.
John Perry BarlowRead
If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that will assure you have a highly knowledgeable elite and an ignorant mass.
John Perry BarlowRead
Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge.
John Perry BarlowRead
The Internet amplifies power in all respects. It can grossly exaggerate the power of the individual.
John Perry BarlowRead
I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.
John Perry BarlowRead
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If I had time and a hammer, I'd track down every bootleg copy and smash it.
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Any program is only as good as it is useful.
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