But why people - and I include myself here — would rather sit in front of a computer than do other things such as have a conversation is difficult to… - Friedrich Kittler

It has become clear that real wars are fought not for people or fatherlands, but take place between different media, information technologies, data flows.

These programs are called "daemons"... You never see them, and yet they're constantly doing something for you, like the angel in the medieval Angelo Loci... we should slowly let go of that old dream of sociologists, the one that says that society is by nature made up only of human beings. Today — and tomorrow — the term "society" should include people and programs.

It's always difficult to find the first sentence. And with "Discourse Networks" where everything was at stake, namely my profession, it was more difficult than ever. So I rolled a joint and wrote the first chapter, about Goethe's "Faust", mildly stoned.