People have to be able to make money off their brains and their hearts. Or else we're all going to starve, and it's the machines that'll get good.

We have repeatedly demonstrated our species's bottomless ability to lower our standards to make information technology look good.

The problem I have with socialist utopias is there's some kind of committees trying to soften outcomes for people. I think that imposes models of outcomes for other people's lives. So in a spiritual sense there's some bit of libertarian in me. But the critical thing for me is moderation. And if you let that go far you do end up with a winner-take-all society that ultimately crushes everybody even worse.

A digital sound sample in angry rap doesn't correspond to the graffiti but the wall.

What is extraordinary is that in the United States the current culture desires feelings of machismo and power, but at the same time has absolutely no taste whatsoever for even the slightest loss or bloodshed or ickiness. That's a fascinating combination.

We're losing track of the vastness of the potential for computer science. We really have to revive the beautiful intellectual joy of it, as opposed to the business potential.

If you're old enough to have a job and to have a life, you use Facebook exactly as advertised, you look up old friends.