A mirror world is some huge institution’s moving true-to-life mirror image trapped inside a computer … Such a system would give us “whole-sightedness,” the ability to see the whole operation, object, or community and thereby, presumably, make the right decisions when we wish to change or interact with the system.
Predictor: Gelernter, David
Prediction, in context:In a report written in 1993 and published on the Web site of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Steve Cisler quotes a passage from David Gelernter’s book “Mirror Worlds.” Cisler writes: ”Looking years into the future, David Gelernter, associate professor of computer science at Yale University, describes the framework for a system he calls ‘Mirror Worlds:’ ‘What are they? They are the software models of some chunk of reality, some piece of the real world going on outside your window. Oceans of information pour endlessly into the model (through a vast maze of software pipes and hoses): so much information that the model can mimic the reality’s every move, moment by moment. A mirror world is some huge institution’s moving true-to-life mirror image trapped inside a computer – where you can see and grasp it as a whole.’ In the first part of the book [Gelernter] describes the richness of a community or institutional network where all activity is mapped to the computer, he explains the significance of many users having access to all this information and how it will affect relationships, business, elections, and public government. He argues that such a system would give us ‘whole-sightedness’, the ability to see the whole operation, object, or community and thereby, presumably, make the right decisions when we wish to change or interact with the system. It seemed that many people would be tempted to interact more with the richly detailed computer model and not the community it represented.”
Biography:David Gelernter, a Yale University scientist, was the author of “Mirror Worlds,” “1939: The Lost World of the Fair” and “The Muse in the Machine.” (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Web site
Title, headline, chapter name: Community Computer Networks: Building Electronic Greenbelts
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
www.cpsr.org/program/community-nets/building_electronic_greenbelts.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Falcone, Peter P.