Excessive speed and quantity are, like chattiness and digression, besetting sins of cyber-assisted authorship.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Steampunk appeals to the idea of uniqueness, to the one-off item, while every mainstream consumer technology of recent years is about putting human beings into ever more granular, packageable and mass-produced identities so that they can be sold or sold to, perfectly mapped and understood.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Steampunk emphasizes individuality and uniqueness in contrast to modern consumerism's focus on mass production.
In this quote, Nick Harkaway critiques contemporary consumer technology for reducing human identities to mere products that can be easily categorized and sold. He contrasts this with the steampunk aesthetic, which celebrates uniqueness and the artistry of one-of-a-kind items, suggesting that true individuality is lost in a world driven by mass production and consumer culture.
Themes
UniquenessConsumerismSteampunkIdentityTechnology
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the impact of consumer culture, this quote highlights the importance of individuality.
Similar quotes
As technology increasingly takes over knowledge-based work, the cognitive skills that are central to today's education systems will remain important; but behavioral and non-cognitive skills necessary for collaboration, innovation, and problem solving will become essential as well.
Klaus SchwabRead
To our human minds, computers behave less like rocks and trees than they do like humans, so we unconsciously treat them like people.... In other words, humans have special instincts that tell them how to behave around other sentient beings, and as soon as any object exhibits sufficient cognitive function, those instincts kick in and we react as though we were interacting with another sentient human being.
Alan CooperRead
Technology will save us if it doesn't wipe us out first.
Pete SeegerRead
You look at marketing: everything that's happening in marketing is digitized. Everything that's happening in finance is digitized. So pretty much every industry, every function in every industry, has a huge element that's driven by information technology. It's no longer discrete.
Satya NadellaRead
In a time not distant, it will be possible to flash any image formed in thought on a screen and render it visible at any place desired. The perfection of this means of reading thought will create a revolution for the better in all our social relations.
Nikola TeslaRead