"With images of American soldiers torturing their captives fresh in our minds, those sanitized relays from smart missiles and satellites no longer hold the video game allure they once did."

"If the telecommunications and entertainment industries (and countless consumers) are now enthralled with all things mobile, the pieces collected here underscore that mobility is first and foremost a social phenomenon, one with long and troubled histories."

"The voices that reach us via things that were meant to be forgotten may in fact speak most eloquently to the imperatives and contradictions of our present historical moment."

"Some pieces in this issue -- including those by Eric Faden, Perry Hoberman, and Donald Hoffman -- blur past and present, real and make believe, theory and art, playfully tweaking the borders of the user's perception."

"In 'Deliberative Democracy and Difference,' he argues that theories of deliberative democracy must suppress certain variables or predispositions in order to model a world of rational discourse and democracy and instead offers a simulated glimpse into how such theories are likely to fall short."