We'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure.

If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

I sense an insatiable demand for connectivity. Maybe all these people have discovered important uses for the Internet. Perhaps some of them feel hungry for a community that our real neighborhoods don't deliver. At least a few must wonder what the big deal is.

Minds think with ideas, not information No amount of data, bandwidth, or processing power can substitute for inspired thought.

For years, we've been bludgeoned with the cliche "information is power." But information isn't power. After all, who's got the most information in your neighborhood? Librarians. And they're famous for having no power at all. And who has the most power in your community? Politicians. And they're notorious for being ill-informed.

No computer network with pretty graphics can ever replace the salespeople that make our society work.

Here are my strong reservations about the wave of computer networks. They isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience. They work against literacy and creativity. They undercut our schools and libraries.