The Race to the Intelligent State

"Unless technological change results in some identifiable discontinuity in the stream of history—the notion of an information revolution will be little more than hype."

"The development of the chip-maker's art will be a major determinant of the nature of the platforms on which information systems will be operating early in the next [21st] century."

"Past experience suggests that one thing which we will do is to play with it."

"It remains to be seen to what extent it is choice itself which has been the commodity for sale in this media boom and how far the desire for a genuine segmentation of the market will provide economic justification for the mass of alternatives."

"The emphasis in American official policy, it seems, is always on access and opportunity and seldom on central planning."

"It is a short step to the position taken by some communications studies specialists and information economists that the information society is primarily concerned with control."

"Few things wreak more havoc with existing social and political arrangements or have a more profound impact on the nature of political and economic control than an upheaval in the information environment."

"The info-tiger economy grows out of a fertile intellectual environment in which entrepreneurial effort is concentrated and where political, social, cultural, and linguistic barriers to intellectual commerce can be removed."

"If the direct impact of changes in the infostructure does not make life in the developed nations feel much different in ten or so years' time, the indirect impact certainly will."