In Italo Calvino's "Nothing and Not Much," Qfwfq talks about "a time when it was only in the chinks of emptiness, the absences, the silences, the gaps, the missing connections, the flaws in time's fabric, that I could find meaning and value."
ruin, v.
(ˈruːɪn)
[ad. F. ruiner (14th c., = Sp. and Pg. ruinar, It. rovinare, ruinare), or med.L. ruīnāre, f. ruīna ruin n.]
I. 1.I.1 a.I.1.a trans. To reduce (a place, etc.) to ruins. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xii. 47 b, [They] ruined and cast down to the ground the wals of the city. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 114 From thence alongst the shore lieth Cæsaria, now ruined by them of Gallipoli. 1686 tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 410 An Inundation of Waters ruin'd a thousand Houses. 1830 Examiner 455/1 Our batteries continued to ruin the works. 1849-50 Alison Hist. Europe VIII. xlix. §87. 92 The wall, which was of tough mud, was imperfectly ruined.
fig. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. i. 97 What ruines are in me‥By him not ruin'd? 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 51 This mortall house Ile ruine, Do Cæsar what he can.
b.I.1.b fig. To overthrow, destroy (a kingdom, etc.).
1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xiii. 49 After hee hadde ruined the Empyre of Constantinople. 1671 Milton P.R. iv. 363 In them is plainest taught‥What ruins Kingdoms, and lays Cities flat. 1743 Pitt in Almon Anecd. (1810) I. 107 France had a mind to have the power of that House reduced, but not to be absolutely ruined. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 146 Charles‥was not ruining the papacy, and had no intention of ruining it.
†2.I.2 To destroy, extirpate, eradicate; to do away with, get rid of, by a destructive process. Obs.
1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 22 Some of whom did seeke to ruine all memory of learning from among them. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. vii. (1651) 356 He fell down dead upon the Dragon, and killed him with the fall, so both were ruin'd. 1645 Symonds Diary (Camden) 163 Cromwell's horse and dragoons ruined some of our horse that quartered about Islip. 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 255 You shall every year renew some of your beds,
Is the internet really a new thing? isn't it just another iteration of the human need to connect? Isn't it just laying down a new network over the old, but the old tunnels are still there (actually in Paris with pneumatic tubes).