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People will not die. Isn't this the creed of the new culture? People will be absorbed in streams of information. I know nothing about this. Computers will die. They're dying in their present form. They're just about dead as distinct units.
Don Delillo
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that while people continue to thrive in a culture rich with information, computers as distinct entities are becoming obsolete.

Don Delillo's quote reflects on the transformation of society in the face of technological advancement. He posits that while human beings remain vibrant and engaged within a vast flow of information, the traditional form of computers is nearing obsolescence, hinting at a shift in how we interact with technology and the potential for new forms to emerge that will redefine our relationship with information and machines.

Themes

TechnologyInformationObsolescenceComputersCulture

In practice

Example use cases

During a presentation on the future of technology, one could use this quote to highlight the evolution of computers in society.

More from Don Delillo

The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
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American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
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For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
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I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
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[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. 
He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way he’s carrying a gun. 
This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
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