The Internet in the 21st Century is as important to our future as highways were in the 20th Century. Like a highway, the Internet must remain free and open for all - not determined by the highest bidders.
Interpretation
The Internet is essential for future progress, akin to the role of highways in the past century.
In this quote, Chuck Schumer emphasizes the critical importance of the Internet in the modern world, paralleling it with the impact that highways had in the previous century. He advocates for the principle that access to the Internet should be universally free and not subject to corporate control, highlighting the need for an open digital landscape that fosters innovation and equality.
In practice
In a speech about digital rights, this quote can emphasize the importance of net neutrality.
There are two tests in life, more important than any other test. On Monday morning, when you wake up, do you feel in the pit of your stomach you can't wait to go to work? And when you're ready to go home Friday afternoon, do you say, 'I can't wait to go home?'
Encryption...is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running the government... It's hard to think of a more powerful, less dangerous tool for liberty.
Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the Web like deer on a freeway.
Technology should do the hard work, so you can get on and live your life. We're only at one percent of what's possible, and we're moving slow relative to the opportunity we have.
I think it's brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.
If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs.
It used to be that we imagined that our mobile phones would be for us to talk to each other. Now, our mobile phones are there to talk to us.
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