The Japanese are great at inventing complex systems of rules, and not so great at explaining those rules to foreign visitors.
Charles C. MannIn 1491 the Inka ruled the greatest empire on earth. Bigger than Ming Dynasty China, bigger than Ivan the Greatโs expanding Russia, bigger than Songhay in the Sahel or powerful Great Zimbabwe in the West Africa tablelands, bigger than the cresting Ottoman Empire, bigger than the Triple Alliance (as the Aztec empire is more precisely known), bigger by far than any European state, the Inka dominion extended over a staggering thirty-two degrees of latitudeโas if a single power held sway from St. Petersburg to Cairo.
Charles C. MannThe human propensity is to believe that flukes of good fortune will never come to an end.
Charles C. MannCompared with U.S. cities, Japanese cities bend over backward to help foreigners. The countryside is another matter.
Charles C. MannA world with a sudden limit on air travel would be tremendously different from the one we live in now.
Charles C. MannMajor power and telephone grids have long been controlled by computer networks, but now similar systems are embedded in such mundane objects as electric meters, alarm clocks, home refrigerators and thermostats, video cameras, bathroom scales, and Christmas-tree lights - all of which are, or soon will be, accessible remotely.
Charles C. Mann