“I used to relate with living beings directly. It was such a bother. All of those constant, troubling little interpersonal intimacies and expectations. I mean, really… who needs them? Society itself produced the solution: imaginary distances bridged by wires.

Now we have these wonderful machines. Those messy relationships? Things of the past. Anachronisms. The few remaining relationships in my life are conducted through machines. They mediate my every act of relation, in one form, or another, providing that crucial ‘representational distance’ that I find so protective.

People are really just icons. Animals are just happy images and laugh-riot gags. And they can be disposed of with a click. Goods and services can be enjoyed in abstract delight and complete oblivium. These machines protect me. First, from development, and second… from the messy inconveniences of being alive.”

— an anonymous informant