Anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks and lightweight mash-ups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole, this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communication has demeaned personal interaction. – Jaron Lanier
I feel drawn to experiment with ways that technology can interact with notions of intimacy, because so much of technology is done in a way thats very cold and has such an opposite effect. – Jaron Lanier
The wisdom of crowds works when the crowd is choosing the price of an ox, when theres a single numeric average. But if its a design or something that matters, the decision is made by committee, and thats crap. You want people and groups who are able to think thoughts before they share. – Jaron Lanier
The basic problem is that web 2.0 tools are not supportive of democracy by design. They are tools designed to gather spy-agency-like data in a seductive way, first and foremost, but as a side effect they tend to provide software support for mob-like phenomena. – Jaron Lanier
Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. – Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers