The Net is a unique creation of human intelligence.
... the first intelligent artificial organism.
... represents the growth of a new society within the old.
... represents a new model of governance.
... represents a threat to civil liberties.
... the greatest free marketplace of ideas that has ever existed.
The Net is in imminent danger of extinction.
The Net is immortal.

- Henry Edward Hardy, introduction to The History of the Net
Master's Thesis for the School of Communications, Grand Valley State University (September 28, 1993)