"Intellectual work is social work -- notwithstanding the myth of the solitary genius -- and the university is a social institution. The Internet can enhance the society of the university and quicken its pace of discovery and invention, but the electronic environment cannot replace physical human society. We humans cannot thrive in a bodiless, frownless, smileless ecology, and our intellectual society cannot be complete without physical interaction" (The Provost of the University of Pennsylvania).

In the same article, author Lewis Perelman characterized this view as "an expression of hope triumphing over logic," convinced that time and career-based student needs will take information to the students rather than bring students to the information (Chronicle of Higher Education 1/27/95 A22).