It’s going to change things the way the advent of the railroads changed people. In the next five to 10 years, we’ll live our lives differently.
Predictor: Landweber, Lawrence
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article on the Internet, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Keith Epstein quotes Lawrence Landweber. Epstein writes: ”Imagine this: A unifying national high-tech network that links and merges everybody’s computers, telephones and television sets. We’re talking mega-multimedia in one cable box: Movies, medical records, satellite photos, prize fights, billing systems, golf lessons, rock videos, libraries, classrooms, bank accounts … Need a new sofa or sports bra? Order from 3-D catalogues. House-hunting? Choose your neighborhood and nearly step inside. Entertainment? Try ‘Casablanca,’ Madonna or the 37th episode of ‘Cheers.’ Five hundred channels and nothing on? Switch on Springsteen or print out the comics from tomorrow’s newspaper … ‘A revolution in communications,’ agreed Lawrence Landweber, a University of Wisconsin scientist. ‘It’s going to change things the way the advent of the railroads changed people. In the next five to 10 years, we’ll live our lives differently.'”
Biography:Lawrence Landweber, then at the University of Wisconsin, created THEORYNET, providing electronic mail to a group of more than 100 computer-science researchers using a locally developed e-mail system over TELENET in 1977. In 1979 he worked with the National Science Foundation to establish a U.S. research computer network that eventually became NSFNET. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Cleveland Plain Dealer
Title, headline, chapter name: 300-Lane ‘Information Superhighway’ Brings Data, Entertainment to Your Door
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=e261cbbd27b08561468dd4c6cd0d92d6&_docnum=11&wchp=dGLbVzb-lSlAl&_md5=16648e7b6e49ee6ae63b3ca4d445d992
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Pagano, Shawna