How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
One of the youngest marines laughed. "You're just getting old, Nancy. Cross-belief strife is tragic new."
Bob didn't try to parse the slang, but he'd heard enough from Dad and Miri to get the point. (20.143-4)
Thankfully, however weird the future gets, we can be assured of one thing: young people use slang. "Tragic" is about the only slang that we see in this book. But this marine's use of slang marks him as part of a young community.
Quote #8
"I thought the whole point of belief circles was that they can coexist in the same space."
[…]
"But," Rivera continued, "the library is a tight fit. In principle we can morph to support the multiple beliefs, like on Pyramid Hill. In fact, our environment is often too close for conflicting haptics." (21.23)
Here's the flipside to those 200,000 views that Robert was choosing between: there, you had many communities and no interaction. But, as librarian Rivera explains, in the library, they couldn't fit too many views in because people would be interacting with each other. So since these different communities (the belief circles) couldn't ignore each other, now they're going to war for the library.
Quote #9
The affair had called into existence (or simply into his notice?) a creature that might be his equal. Rabbit had played both sides through the first part of the riot... but now Dangerous Knowledge had been taken over by something very creative, something who was having as much fun tonight as Rabbit himself. So he had millions of new affiliates, some of them as capable as a human could ever be. And he'd found a special new friend, to boot. (25.28)
Just as Robert has to deal with being completely alone and without community, so Rabbit has to deal with being one-of-a-kind. Now, with his affiliances, Rabbit has lots of connections with people, but no one that's his equal/friend. Until now, when Dangerous Knowledge is being driven by someone who seems like "a special new friend." This is a happy moment for Rabbit and a reminder that up till now, he had no community of equals. (This quote is Evidence with a capital "E" that Rabbit isn't human given the way he thinks about humans and himself.)