“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” said Sir Winston Churchill in his speech to the meeting in the House of Lords, October 28, 1943, requesting that the House of Commons bombed out in May 1941 be rebuilt exactly as before.

emust bewareofacertaincrazeforcollectingwhich sometimestakespossessionofthosewhomakenotes.Theywanttohaveafullnotebookorfilingcabinet;theyareinahurrytoputsomethingintheemptyspaces,andtheyaccumulatepassagesasotherpeoplefillstamp and postcard albums.Thatisadeplorablepractice;itisasortofchild-ishness,andrisksbecomingamania. Orderisanecessity, butitmustserveus,notweit.Toin-dulge obstinatelyinaccumulatingandcompletingistoturn one’smindaway from producingandeyen from learning; excessive attentiontoclassifi-cation interferes withuse;nowinthisconnectioneverything mustbesubordinatedtothegoodofthework.

Confusion about what it means toown a book leads people to a falsereverence for paper, binding, and type—a respect for the physical thing—thecraft of the printer rather than thegenius of the author.

As Thoreau said, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us”;and this is what we must fight, in our time. The question is, indeed,Which is to be master? Will we survive our technologies?

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides uponus. Did you ever think what those sleepers are thatunderlie the railroad ? Each one is a man, an Irish¬man, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, andthey are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothlyover them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you.And every few years a new lot is laid down and runover; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on arail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon.

But lo!men have become the tools of their tools. The manwho independently plucked the fruits when he was hun¬gry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a treefor shelter, a housekeeper.

But if we are downloaded into our technology, what are the chancesthat we will thereafter be ourselves or even human?