[The] global dimension of our personal lives means that it is more important than ever to uncover our religious and political biases, our racial and gender privileges, and our unwitting complicity in institutional oppression. But is that a realistic enterprise? How can I find a firm ethical ground in a world that extends far beyond my horizons, that spins completely out of human control, and that holds all gods and ideologies suspect?”
-- The Author (Narration) (Introduction)

Importance: In this quote, the author poses a question that the remainder of the book attempts to answer. The "21 Lessons" of the title are the author's chapter-by-chapter attempt to answer different aspects of this question.

As long as it was thought that … emotions and desires were generated by an immaterial spirit, it seemed obvious that computers would never be able to replace human drivers, bankers, and lawyers. For how could a computer understand the divinely created human spirit? Yet...
-- The Author (Narration) (chapter 2)