The scenario I’m playing with now is that the Internet might die. You can imagine a situation in which there’s 200 million people on the Internet trying to send e-mail messages and the whole thing just grinds to a halt. Its own success just kills it. In the meantime, a telephone company steps in and offers e-mail for $5 a month, no traffic jams and it’s reliable. I hope it doesn’t happen, but it’s a scenario one has to consider.
Predictor: Kelly, Kevin
Prediction, in context:In an interview he conducted with Wired executive editor Kevin Kelly about Kelly’s new book “Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines,” London Observer reporter Jim McClellan writes: ”I ask Kelly about the Internet … Thanks to the success of Wired, he’s become a kind of Net guru, and takes a call a day on the subject from journalists around the world. ‘Usually I make something up,’ he jokes. His current take proves surprisingly gloomy. ‘The scenario I’m playing with now is that the Internet might die. You can imagine a situation in which there’s 200 million people on the Internet trying to send e-mail messages and the whole thing just grinds to a halt. Its own success just kills it. In the meantime, a telephone company steps in and offers e-mail for $5 a month, no traffic jams and it’s reliable. I hope it doesn’t happen, but it’s a scenario one has to consider.'”
Biography:Kevin Kelly was the author of the book “Out of Control” and the first executive editor of the highly influential Wired magazine. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Bandwidth
Name of publication: Observer
Title, headline, chapter name: Cyberspace: The Line Between the Made and the Born is being Blurred. Jim McClellan on Kevin Kelly’s Latest Theories
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=da999e988215a1ea15b156d0f8aa909c...
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Komorowski, Anne Gabrielle