How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
In the midst of network failure, these people were reduced to literal word of mouth. But that word was spreading. More and more people realized that for only the third or fourth time in recent history, their own country was under a military assault. So far none of them had guessed that it was their own military's doing. (32.58)
In a moment of almost complete technological failure, we're reduced to our most primitive technology: talking to each other. However, even at this moment when communication seems reduced to its most basic, it still seems pretty effective. Maybe people don't have access to Twitter so they can't see the bigger picture (as Alfred Vaz can), but the communication that is going on seems helpful to these people.
Quote #8
I didn't mean for this. He should say nothing, but his body betrayed him:
Anonymous — > Robert Gu: Where is your little girl? (32.79-80)
One of our big questions about silent messaging (SM) is how close it is to actual telepathy. Like here, Alfred is getting away after his plans have been ruined. So he's a little upset. But what does this quote mean when it says "his body betrayed him"? Does that mean that, without meaning to, his body made the little moves that would send this message through his wearable computer? If so, why doesn't that happen more often?
Quote #9
"We were," said Tommie, "but we came back. Wanted to congratulate you on your music synch gimmick."
Xiu Xiang nodded agreement. Of the two, only she was wearing. A congrats logo floated out from her. Poor Tommie was still lugging around his laptop, though whatever remained inside surely belonged to the secret police.
"Thanks. I'm proud of it, but emphasize the word gimmick. No one really needs to synch manual music across thousands of miles of cheapnet. And basically, I just took advantage of routing predictabilities plus knowledge of the music being played." (34.34-6)
Juan and Robert's final project is a "symbol" for the difficulty of getting people to work together. (And some other stuff.) But it's also an excellent example of the difficulties and possibility of communication: they had to coordinate a whole worldwide network of people to get this simple communication to work. There's even more here to note about communication and how different people use it: notice that Tommie is still lugging around that laptop, though Xiu Xiang is able to communicate via sm.