“Suppose that the NSA was acquired by Google, let’s say, and suppose that Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Amazon pooled all their databanks, maybe through legislative fiat, or through open-source… And then we spiced-up that huge Cloud of Big Data, with some massive real-time data flows from “smart cities” and “wearables"… And then we attacked that amorphous post-mediated mass with Siri, and Watson, and such… Well, that would no longer be "media.” That would be something very sci-fi, very “ubiquitous computing,” very pervasive and ambient.”
– The WELL: Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: State of the World 2014