No matter how much faster computers become relative to their price, they will not be fast enough to outrun the artistic imagination. Nor will artists be able to afford them … Cyberspace is a public good. Vice President Gore’s abandonment of the national “information superhighway” to private development by media conglomerates should give us little hope of realizing a digital world any lovelier than the mall, or Home Shopping Channel, anytime soon.
Predictor: Benedikt, Michael L.
Prediction, in context:In his 1994 essay “Physics for Phantoms,” Michael Benedikt writes: ”No matter how much faster computers become relative to their price, they will not be fast enough to outrun the artistic imagination. Nor will artists be able to afford them. Without the university and public support of artists and architects designing virtual worlds, and without their involvement in the development of cyberspace generally, we shall have what Gibson warned us of: a consciousness-degrading torrent of choiceless choice, kitsch, and commercialism the likes of which has not yet been seen this side of doing acid on Route 10 out of Phoenix. Mainlining TV Gibson called it. Cyberspace is a public good. Vice President Gore’s abandonment of the national ‘information superhighway’ to private development by media conglomerates should give us little hope of realizing a digital world any lovelier than the mall, or Home Shopping Channel, anytime soon.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry
Name of publication: Softworlds Inc.
Title, headline, chapter name: Physics for Phantoms
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ar.utexas.edu/center/benedikt_articles/physics.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Boone, Jason Matthew