obligatory quote from castells writing a trilogy, quote from first volume below not the easiest reading, but we all should anyway //it is the beginning of a new existence, and indeed the beginning of a new age, the information age, marked by the autonomy of culture vis-a-vis the material bases of our existence. but this is not necessarily an exhilirating moment. because, alone at last in our human world, we shall have to look at ourselves in the mirror of historical reality. and we may not like the vision.// -- manuel castells, rise of the network society, vol1, p. 478