Zed Quotes

“The point was made across all the free media. Nothing you are told is real. Remember this, until we tell you that something you are being told is real. Actually, the thing we are telling you, that nothing you are told is real, is actually real. That thing is real, about nothing being real. Just that thing though and nothing else. Is that clear?”
― Joanna Kavenna, Zed: A Novel

“It was a perfect system, so long as the universe was deterministic and so long as humans did not make any errors.”
― Joanna Kavenna, Zed: A Novel

“These people could not be bailed out, of course, because the free market was free. Of course, at times of financial crisis the Government did, in fact, bail out the major institutions of the free market, but this did not in any way undermine the fundamental notion that the market must be free and this bailing out could, of course, not be extended to individuals within the free market. Some people are, alas, not intellectually capable of understanding arguments about such complex things.”
― Joanna Kavenna, Zed: A Novel

“Look, the predictive algorithms have worked beautifully for ages. We have saved scores of lives. We have averted countless terrorist attacks. We have enhanced the quality of life of all verified users. There have been a couple of recent glitches but, with respect to the families of the dead, it is absurd to suggest these are anything more than exceptionally unusual anomalies. Due to the zettabytes of data we have amassed, we have a unique understanding of the human soul, of its desires and intentions, of the desires and intentions of humans in general and humans in particular. We have offered this unprecedented knowledge of the past, present, and future to the security services and the police, to combat the extreme threat from terror and keep our people safe. You are the beneficiaries, and you are complaining.”
― Joanna Kavenna, Zed: A Novel