The embrace of a new technology by ordinary people leads inevitably to its embrace by people of malign intent.
Charles C. MannThe human propensity is to believe that flukes of good fortune will never come to an end.
Charles C. MannA smartphone links patients' bodies and doctors' computers, which in turn are connected to the Internet, which in turn is connected to any smartphone anywhere. The new devices could put the management of an individual's internal organs in the hands of every hacker, online scammer, and digital vandal on Earth.
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. Mann