19 Quotes by Malka Ann Older

We want people to understand that they’re choosing a set of policies and principles, a way of life, not a person.

You don't remember what it was like before Information... Competing data sources tore down any idea of truth; people voted based on falsehoods. We didn't invent surveillance: there were plenty of feeds and search trackers, but they were fragmented and firewalled by governments and private companies. The surveillance was used to propagate falsehoods.

She’s still thinking in diplo-speak, though, and asks a question rather than answering directly.

Sure, but…” Roz thinks about everything she uses Information for, all the time. “If you’re driving, and you come to an intersection, how do you know what vehicles might be approaching from either side?”“Well, we try not to design blind intersections,” Maria says. “And we use mirrors.”Mirrors! Ingenious. “You must have found it much easier than we did when Information went out during the elections,” Roz says, trying to offer Maria’s odd cult some credit.

you can give a voter Information, but you can’t make them think.

The whole point of micro-democracy was to allow people to choose their government wherever they were, but plenty of people didn’t agree with their 99,999 geographically closest friends.

social capital pyramid scheme

We know ‘vote for us and we will smite your enemies’ works.

There is nothing that suits us more than most of the world believing that their will is being carried out by governments that do exactly as they please.