The myth

Witness Elimination Program
The myth is that witness relocation exists, whereas people who "enter the program" are simply shot.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

mean to vanquish nature

Unchecked
"Unchecked, science and monotheism both mean to vanquish nature" - a lovely quote from Christopher Potter in You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

the events of 9/11

Ninetenicillin
A pill that makes one feel as if the events of 9/11 had never occurred. A variation of Millennial Tristesse, a longing for the twentieth century.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

instant itness

Itness
The ability of one agent to create the perception of an object, person, or event as possessing "it" - for example, not wanting to be "it" in a game of tag - or even the ability of a dog owner to create instant itness when choosing a stick to be thrown for retrieval.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

a "me day."

The Future of Labour
The fact that there is no word in the Chinese language for a "me day."

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

ego by plastering

Deselfing
Willingly diluting one's sense of self and ego by plastering the Internet with as much information as possible.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

unlike one's dog

Chronocanine Envy
Sadness experienced when one realizes that, unlike one's dog, one cannot live only in the present tense. As Kierkegaard said, "Life must be lived forward."

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

if cats were double their usual size

Rachel's father says that if cats were double their usual size, they'd probably be illegal and you'd have to shoot them, but even if dogs were three times as big, they'd still be good friends to people. Rachel sees that as a good way of comparing the two species.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

A dull day is a triumph

So remember, stay halfway between coincidence and entropy and you'll always be safe. Take my word for it, a day in which nothing bad happens is a miracle - it's a day in which all the things that could have gone wrong failed to go wrong. A dull day is a triumph of the human spirit; boredom is a luxury unprecedented in the history of our species.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

the opportunity to be hurt by other people

Luke is afraid of getting hurt, but he also knows that if too much time passes you miss out on the opportunity to be hurt by other people. To a younger Luke this sounded like luck; to an older Luke this sounds like a quiet tragedy.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

equally on the brink

Luke still believes that we are all, at every moment of our lives, equally on the brink of all sins, except that now, in a world without faith, sin has no ramifications; it's just something humans do.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland