What is more important … is the challenge of facing a future in which gigabit-speed networking will be considered slow, in which our communication infrastructure will consist of multi-gigabit, low error, high-latency networks, in which our processing units, while growing faster, will not keep up with increasing communication speeds.
Predictor: Farber, David J.
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article in an online newsletter, David Farber tells of his vision for networking in the years to come and the problems that might accompany it. He writes: ”What is more important … is the challenge of facing a future in which gigabit-speed networking will be considered slow, in which our communication infrastructure will consist of multi-gigabit, low error, high-latency networks, in which our processing units, while growing faster, will not keep up with increasing communication speeds. It is too easy to just remove a few instructions, hack a few cures, and show that one can operate not too badly at current speeds of communication. Perhaps this is equivalent to saying, ‘let the next generation solve the problem.’ I believe that there is a challenge facing the computer communication field of at least the same magnitude as the challenge the field faced in the very early days of networking. Attacking this problem will require the talents of people from every area of both the computer and communications fields – people willing to experiment and willing to face the same set of challenges those in the ’50s faced with the then-new computers.”
Biography:David Farber was the recipient of the 1995 ACM Sigcomm Award for lifelong contributions to the computer communications field. He has worked at the University of Pennsylvania, managing research in high-speed networking. In 2000, he served as chief technologist at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. He also directed the Center for Communications and Information Sciences and Policy. In 1997, Upside magazine named him one of its Elite 100 visionaries of high-tech. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: ERCIM News [online edition]
Title, headline, chapter name: Time to Get Thinking
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw19/farber.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Goodrich, Barbara J.