To survive in the modern world, men and women must become diviners of inscrutable others, interpret the moods of secretaries of deans and CEOs, and shake-ups in the organisation of the Kremlin, White House, or Vatican as if they were the language of some hidden, murky, remote god, content to speak only in darkness and dreams.

john durham peters

What is at stake in debates about communication is the status of the human being, our place in a universe populated by simians and cyborgs, fetuses and the brain-dead, angels and UFOs, “primitives” and smart machines, the dead and the distant.

john durham peters

Peters, J. D. (1999). Speaking into the air. University of Chicago Press.