171 Quotes by Bruce Sterling

"A set of Bollywood actresses are coming through Dallas soon in a live tour; I’d pay a lot to see them, but alas, I’m fully booked elsewhere."

"But from another, deeper perspective: we shouldn’t involve outselves in lines of development where the ultimate victory condition is emulating dead people. There’s no appeal in that. It’s bad for us. That kind of inherent mournfulness is just not a good way to be human."

"The Internet of Things makes no attempt to redress, or even address, the many real problems that the internet brought to the world. On the contrary, it’s an international effort to bring everything that wasn’t internet within the purview of the techno-elite that currently dominates the internet."

"If bin Laden is in fact publicly killed, then the US military will find itself standing around with its hands in its pockets, wondering what’s supposed to come next."

"David Brin is a technological determinist. He thinks that we understand the trend and we need to hop on it. I don’t have any such illusions."

"It was a frightening thing, to see two mentally incompetent sidewalk buskers, with battered folk musicians, who might any moment burst into song."

"Google sells network surveillance and collective intelligence. This is Google’s actual, profitable, monetisable product. “Search” is merely Google’s front end, a brilliant facade to encourage free interaction by the public. People are not Google’s “customers” or even Google’s “users”, but its feudal livestock."

"It’s going to be really interesting to see what the heroin market does in the next two years or so. One thing you can be pretty sure of. The Afghan peasants who grow poppies won’t get rich. The money will end up in places like Dubai."

"War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we’re very unlikely to accept or recognize “world peace” even when we get it."

"There’s no victory-condition for being human."