Detroit right now is virtually abandoned at its core to the degree that a lot of what had been slums thirty years ago are now wildflower meadows. The rebuilding of Detroit will occur a much smaller scale. It remains to be seen what will become of Detroit's vast suburbs.

I do not believe we will get to Ray Kurzweil's proposed "singularity" in which human minds meld with machines to produce, in effect, synthetic human evolution. Our basic problems with maintaining the electric grid argue against that fantasy.

Ridicule is the unfortunate destiny of the ridiculous.

The industrial age is over. What follows will be life lived on a much smaller and finer scale.

I think we'll see a leveling off and then a contraction of population, not a continued upward trend.

People don't like railroad tracks near them? We'll see how they feel when the percentage of U.S. citizens who can afford to drive a car goes way down, as it will.

I'm serenely convinced that we are heading into what will amount to a time out from technological progress as we know it.