Recent quotes:

Tech optimism and civilization

Yet once more, then, to these crises of civilisation a solution offers itself in the guise of Harold Bloom. Take yourself away to some quiet place and read great literature. Nurture your inner self. Feed your imagination. Not for any special purpose or particular gain, but because it is the only way to develop your own self without the crushing collective influence of modern society. As Mill said, “All that we are in danger of losing we may preserve, all that we have lost we may regain, and bring to a perfection hitherto unknown; but not by slumbering.” That’s the attitude that motivates the best parts of Silicon Valley and the tech entrepreneurs. Let us hope it forms the future of their enterprise, that they, and we, will find ourselves more truly and more strange. The future depends, in part, on how much we have the great works of the past blowing in our minds.