The prediction, in brief:

There is every reason to think that virtual-reality technologies will develop rapidly and will eventually enable participation through the Internet. Connected to one’s home computer one will experience an audiovisual “world” generated from a node somewhere in the Internet, and this will include other participants in the same way that today one can communicate with others on bulletin boards in videotext.

Predictor: Poster, Mark

Prediction, in context:

In his 1995 book “The Second Media Age,” Mark Poster, a member of the humanities faculty at the University of California at Irvine, writes:”Virtual reality machines should be able to allow the participant to enter imagined worlds with convincing verisimilitude, releasing immense potentials for fantasy, self-discovery and self-construction. When groups of individuals are able to interact in the same virtual space the possibilities are even more difficult to conceive. One hesitates to suggest that these experiences are commensurate with something that has been termed community. Yet there is every reason to think that virtual-reality technologies will develop rapidly and will eventually enable participation through the Internet. Connected to one’s home computer one will experience an audiovisual ‘world’ generated from a node somewhere in the Internet, and this will include other participants in the same way that today one can communicate with others on bulletin boards in videotext.”

Biography:

Mark Poster wrote the paper “Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere” in 1995 while teaching at the University of California, Irvine. He also wrote about technology for Wired magazine. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information

Subtopic: Virtual Reality

Name of publication: The Second Media Age

Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter Two: Postmodern Virtualities

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Schmidt, Nicholas