What we need is a plan B ... independent of the Internet. [It] doesn't necessarily have to have the performance of the Internet, but the police department has to be able to call up the fire department.
Danny HillisWe're at a point in time which is analogous to when single-celled organisms were turning into multi-celled organisms. So we're the amoebas.
Danny HillisA human body is a conversation going on, both within the cells and between the cells, and they're telling each other to grow and to die; when you're sick, something's gone wrong with that conversation.
Danny HillisAn attitude of only taking what you need was built into the protocols of the Internet itself.
Danny HillisLast century, when the beams needed replacing, carpenters used oak trees that had been planted in 1386 when the dining hall was first built. The 14th-century builder had planted the trees in anticipation of the time, hundreds of years in the future, when the beams would need replacing. Did the carpenters plant new trees to replace the beams again a few hundred years from now?
Danny Hillis