People's social networks do not consist only of people they see face to face. In fact, social networks have been extending because of artificial media since the printing press and the telephone.
Howard RheingoldThe two parts of technology that lower the threshold for activism and technology is the Internet and the mobile phone. Anyone who has a cause can now mobilize very quickly.
Howard RheingoldThe AP has only so many reporters, and CNN only has so many cameras, but we've got a world full of people with digital cameras and Internet access.
Howard RheingoldI'm somebody who seems to stumble into things 10 or 20 years before the rest of the world does.
Howard RheingoldOne of the things we know now that we didn't know then, is that revolutions are very painful to a lot of people. And that at the stage that we have evolved to now, a revolution would be extremely painful.
Howard RheingoldThere are performances in which the people who have the best muscle skills and musical history may be on the stage, but it's not - like a Dead show is not like a usual sit-down performance; the audience does participate.
Howard RheingoldTechnology is knowledge of how the universe works that enables you to change the world.
Howard RheingoldFlash mobbing may be a fad that passes away, or it may be an indicator of things to come.
Howard RheingoldIf 80,000,000 polygons per second is reality, what happens to you when you live in a world 160,000,000?
Howard RheingoldDinosaurs grew feathers for heat regulation, but the ones that started flying started becoming birds.
Howard RheingoldBack in the really early days, the men went out hunting, the women stayed home with the kids, and would hold the kid in one arm against the heart, so that's the left, and with the right arm they would throw. And it turns out you cannot make that calculation in real time. You have to have an algorithm set up. So these brain mechanisms evolved in order to do that, and when they evolved, the thing is that where there is a useful capability it often adapts to places it wasn't evolved for.
Howard RheingoldA lot of people use collaborative technologies badly, then abandon them. They aren't 'plug-and-play.' The invisible part is the social skill necessary to use them.
Howard RheingoldThere is the global teenager hypothesis, that what happened in the '60s in America was that there was, the baby boom cohort grew up at the same time that television and popular music grew up, so that we had this carrier frequency that we all tuned into that gave us the feeling of a common culture, even though I was in Phoenix and someone was in Des Moines. That now we are getting the global cohort at the same time we have our first global communications. MTV is everywhere.
Howard RheingoldI think e-mail petitions are an illusion. It gives people the illusion that they're participating in some meaningful political action.
Howard RheingoldYoung voters are crucial. The trend over recent years has been for them to drift away. So anything that gets young voters interested in the electoral process not only has an immediate effect, but has an effect for years and years.
Howard RheingoldWe can design things that learn, so you can grow an intelligence by creating an environment and creating things that just do it a million time faster than we do.
Howard RheingoldI think there are two aspects to smart environments. One is information embedded in places and things. The other is location awareness, so that devices we carry around know where we are. When you combine those two, you get a lot of possibilities.
Howard RheingoldAny disease support community is a place of deep bonds and empathy, and there are thousands if not tens of thousands of them.
Howard RheingoldThere are actual communication systems being built to enable eye surgeons to get inside the eye, and vascular surgeons to get inside the arteries. You could see a social reaction in which people would want to regulate this technology because they are threatened by it, and thereby cause a lot of harm. There are several scenarios that are happening at once. The other scenario is that the Japanese are going for this in a big way.
Howard RheingoldIt's kind of astonishing that people trust strangers because of words they write on computer screens.
Howard RheingoldIn Japanese organizations, before you have a meeting and you've got an idea that you want to get across, you go talk to everyone and list them. And then the meeting, you don't do it American style where everyone gets up and advocates and conflicts and decides, you get up and formalize agreements.
Howard RheingoldA forecasting game is a kind of simulation, a kind of scenario, a kind of teleconference, a kind of artifact from the future - and more - that enlists the participants as 'first-person forecasters.'
Howard RheingoldLike most modern Americans, I assume individuality is not only a fundamental value, but a goal in life, an art form.
Howard RheingoldAmericans love technology, like jet planes and hot rods and televisions. It's a real conflict between the denial of, "gee this is going to break people out of their regular frames," and "gee it's a new technology I have got to have it."
Howard RheingoldIf, like many others, you are concerned social media is making people and cultures shallow, I propose we teach more people how to swim and together explore the deeper end of the pool.
Howard RheingoldTelecommuting has its advantages and it has its limits. I think we need to find that sweet spot in between where it helps the environment, it helps people, but it doesn't alienate us and it doesn't cause our organizations to fall apart by centrifugal force.
Howard RheingoldThe neural network is this kind of technology that is not an algorithm, it is a network that has weights on it, and you can adjust the weights so that it learns. You teach it through trials.
Howard RheingoldA phone tree isn't an ancient form of political organizing, but you have to call every person.
Howard RheingoldIn the broad sense design means thinking about what the function or purpose of things or processes are, and translating that into action.
Howard RheingoldThe manufacturing and packaging of homogeneous experience is what politics in America is about.
Howard RheingoldWhat is it about sex? Is it the sensations, or is it the meanings and the communication game that's tied into that.
Howard RheingoldEssentially pursuit of happiness is saying, everything's allowed until we come down on it.
Howard Rheingold