With millions of users posting messages to the network, the valuable gets lost in the dross … With everyone able to upload their works to the network, the Internet begins to resemble publisher’s slush piles. It’s up to the reader to separate out the dregs. What’s missing from the network are genuine editors.
Predictor: Stoll, Clifford
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Silicon Snake Oil,” writer Clifford Stoll shares his take on the Internet’s future:”The future Internet promises more than just the written word – we’ll be able to send sounds, images, even videos across the network … But the reality is that with millions of users posting messages to the network, the valuable gets lost in the dross … With everyone able to upload their works to the network, the Internet begins to resemble publisher’s slush piles. It’s up to the reader to separate out the dregs. What’s missing from the network are genuine editors. Ah, editors! The bane of writers, reporters and publishers, editors yet serve as the barometers of literary quality and advocates for the reader. Without them on the nets, you simply have no way to tell what’s worth reading.”
Biography:Clifford Stoll was an astrophysicist who also wrote the influential books “Silicon Snake Oil” (1995) and “The Cuckoo’s Egg.” A long-time network user, Stoll made “Silicon Snake Oil” his platform for finding fault with the Internet hype of the early 1990s. He pointed out the pitfalls of a completely networked society and offered arguments in opposition to the hype. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Silicon Snake Oil
Title, headline, chapter name: An Amalgam of Popular Fictions About the Internet, Including Brief Trips to China and The City of No Illusions
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 38
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Tencer, Elizabeth L.