We had a robust chat during our breakfast panel Friday morning that pursued several strands, among them whether our lives have become too chaotic as a result of the Internet.

What was pretty cool, and this was a Brainstorm moment, actually, was the amount of Internet history we had in the room. Stewart Brand, founder of the first online "community" the Well; Yossi Vardi, founder of instant-messaging pioneer ICQ; and paid-search inventor Bill Gross were among the luminaries who showed up for our early-morning chat.

We certainly didn't solve anything - another Brainstorm moment - but at the same time we aired some interesting divisions. Some of us, myself included, wondered if the "steroids" of our digital life doesn't get a bit much from time to time. (Venture capitalist John Fisher talked about the "tyranny of email," for example.)

Others, like Microsoft's Gary Flake and Brand himself, waxed eloquent about how our lives are only going to keep getting better and better as a result of digital steroids.

The entertaining Vardi informed us why we like instant messaging so much. The collaboration entailed in IM actually releases dopamine, the pleasure chemical, he said. Amazing. Smart people, interesting ideas.

Good brainstorming.