How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Robert leaned forward to get a close view of the paper. It didn't glow; it didn't even have the glassy appearance of a computer display. It was just plain, high-quality paper. Reed pointed at the outline items. "Now press the menu option that corresponds to your favorite system."
Robert shrugged. Over the years, the Department had upgraded through a number of systems, but—he pressed his finger to the line of text that said 'WinME'. There was no pause, none of the bootup delays he recalled. But suddenly a familiar and annoying musical jingle was in the air. It seemed to come from all around, not from the piece of paper. Now the page was full of color and icons. Robert was filled with nostalgia, remembering many frustrating hours spent in front of glowing computer screens. (3.26-7)
First, let's marvel at the wonderful technology of the future: Robert's computer is a piece of paper—lighter and more powerful than the tablets we have today. Want want want. Second, we love that Robert uses this new computer to run a very old program; and that when he runs it, he feels nostalgia for something that he hated in the past. Is this the first sign of his change to being a techie?
Quote #2
Robert sat down beside Miri. "You know," he said, more to probe reactions than anything else. "This all seems a bit primitive to me. Where are the robot servants—or even the little automatic hands to put the TV dinners in the 'wave and take them out?" (3.70)
Call this the "where's my jetpack?" reaction to being in the future. Robert grew up in a time where they thought the future was going to be all robots and lots of hardware. But the future he wakes up in has lots of software and virtual changes. It's not always easy to guess what future tech will look like.
Quote #3
Blount's eyes narrowed. "I made it a point never to wear. I thought wearing was a demeaning fad." He shrugged. "I was wrong. I paid a heavy price for that. But things have changed." (5.23)
Speaking of people who get the future wrong—hello, Dean Blount! Blount is a good reminder that the future might be full of awesome toys, but not everyone is going to be happy there. For Blount, wearable computers were "a demeaning fad" and now that they've become the normal thing to do, he's been left behind. And while he seems open to change here, we know there are going to be lots of people who aren't. (See "Old Age." Also, see Our Grandparents, who have to print out every email before they read it.)
Quote #4
His foot kicked something metallic. A spent round? No. The gray lump had a triple antenna sticking out of the top. He tossed it into the bushes. He was not beyond the web even here. He pulled out his magic foolscap, surfed the local area. The picture showed the ground around him, from some kind of camera built into the paper; little signs floated above every weed—Ambrosia dumosa-this and Encelia farinosa-that. Ads for the park's gift shop scrolled across the top of the page. (8.11)
Pop-up ads are very annoying. So, imagine what it will be like in the future when you are always connected to the internet. You'll get pop-up ads everywhere! (Maybe.) This is what Robert discovers when he tries to get away from the internet. On the other hand, it seems super useful for your computer to give you info about the world around you.
Quote #5
Near the top of the hill, a Lesser Scooch-a-mout roared into the sky. That sound was not watts from some synthesizer. The departing Scooch-a-mout was how her view imaged the Park's high ride. The ride capsule blasted from deep in the hill, hit four gees before it coasted into the sky, giving its passengers almost a minute of zero-gee before touching down in the Park Annex. It was the most spectacular ride in Southern California. (13.9)
There's enough here to write a paper on. A) With all the virtual tech, people still go on amusement park rides. B) But because the park also is involved in virtual game playing, they make their park rides look like something that would fit in the world. So, when Miri is in Scooch-a-mout view, she sees a roaring Scooch-a-mout. In Cretaceous Returns, that ride sounds like thunder instead (4.34). So we can see how the virtual world deals with the non-virtual world here.
Quote #6
"Well, there's silent messaging. The bitrate is so low, it works when nothing else does."
"Yes! I've read about sming. It's like the old instant messaging, except no one can see you're communicating." (14.65-66)
"No one can see you're communicating." Let's let that sink in for a moment. Because while the old folks are pretty obvious when they type out SMs to each other, the young folk seem to do it very quickly and without any sign. Which means that they can almost telepathically communicate with anyone they want to. Now, imagine it from the other perspective: what if you were in a group of friends and you couldn't be sure whether or not they were gossiping about you—while you're right there?
Quote #7
Robert Gu—and perhaps every student—has dreamed of shortcuts. Learn Russian or Latin or Chinese or Spanish, overnight and painlessly! But be careful what you wish for.... He read the sections on side effects: Learning a language, or a career specialty, changes a person. Cram in such skills willy-nilly and you distort the underlying personality. (15.198)
Robert Gu is learning about JITT here, which is another example of technology's dark side: Sure, JITT can teach you some new skill or field. And yes, we love the idea in theory. But they haven't quite got all the kinks worked out, as we see with Carlos Rivera and Alice Gu. We like the idea of learning a language quickly; we're not crazy about the idea of being brain-damaged ever after. (Or, in Carlos's case, until medical science comes up with a cure.)
Quote #8
First, he laid down a consensus for the robots' appearance. There were queeps and chirps, spitting and shooting in all directions. In reality, these were his 400 mobile manipulators—known as "tweezer bots" in the business. They were barely fast enough to keep up with the humans. But he also had mapped megamunches and xoroshows and salsipueds—these onto his cleaner bots and sample carriers. Behind them lurked the two largest mechs in Huynh's lab, combination forklifts and heavy equipment installers; for now, they were tricked out as gray-masted blue ionipods. (20.188)
One of our favorite words when discussing virtual reality in this book is "consensus": just because you give your robots a certain look in the digital world, doesn't mean that other people are going to see them as such. Besides all the technology, what you need is for the "Community" to agree with you on what they see. Or even better, have the community help out.
Quote #9
There were glimpses of Robert's recent passage. That was enough to guide them downstairs. But now there were places where even wireless failed, and Juan and Miri could talk only to each other.
"It's like a haunted house." Juan's voice was hushed. His hand reached out and grasped hers; she didn't shake him loose. She needed him to keep cool. Certainly losing all connectivity in the middle of an office building was an eerie thing. (22.22-3)
At the end of the library riot, there's a bit network failure. So if you're interested in how technology breaks down and how people cope, you can check that out. But we wanted to put some focus on this little moment, when Juan and Miri are following Robert into a digital deadzone. This is what Robert wanted and failed to get in quote #4. For young peeps like Juan and Miri, though, this deadzone isn't fun—it's a little spooky.
Quote #10
"The British Museum and Library, as digitized and databased by the Chinese Informagical Coalition. The haptics and artifact data are lo-res, to make it all fit on one data card. But the library section is twenty times as big as what Max Huertas sucked out of UCSD. Leaving aside things that never got into a library, that's essentially the record of humanity up through 2000. The whole pre-modern world."
Robert hefted the plastic card. "It doesn't seem like very much." (34.63-4)
If you've ever spent all day writing a paper and then looked at how small the file size is then you'll know this weird feeling: how you can fit so much work into such a tiny technological space. Thanks to digitization and miniaturization, Tommie Parker can give the entire British Library and Museum to Robert Gu—on a little memory card.