He Ain't Seen Nothin

Marshall McLuhan on Photocopiers:

Xerography is bringing a reign of terror into the world of publishing because it means that every reader can become both author and publisher... Authorship and readership alike can become production-oriented under xerography. Anyone can take a book apart, insert parts of other books and other materials of his own interest, and make his own book in a relatively fast time. Any teacher can take any ten textbooks on any subject and custome-make a different one by simply xeroxing a chapter from this on and from that one... [But ] Xerography is electricity invading the world of typography, and it means a total revolution in this old sphere.

-The Medium is the Massage, p. 123 (quoted in Eva Hemmungs Wirten, No Trespassing, p. 66)

I'm not a huge fan of McLuhan, but this is brilliant. He foresaw people "Rip, Mix and Burn"-ing their own content decades before it was even possible. Similarly, he foresaw the reign of terror it would bring. Craziness.