See a cop, enter a report into the system, and the system warns others who are plugged into it. Such a system, of course, would probably not work. The computer interface would eliminate all of the social glue that holds the truckers together. Reporting a cop isn’t just a database entry; it’s a tangible act of solidarity backed up with a voice and a way of speaking and rituals of appreciation that reproduce the sense of community while also decreasing the risks of driving the absurd schedules that the trucking companies claim to regard as practical.
Predictor: Agre, Phil
Prediction, in context:In his July 1994 isse of The Network Observer online newsletter, editor Phil Agre writes about an idea he has for the future of the wireless Internet: ”Recently I spent a week driving around New Mexico … I kept finding myself inventing new things for computers to do in the wireless world of the near future … CB radios allow truckers to maintain a kind of community and culture on the road, and most particularly they let the truckers keep track of the cops. Relfecting on this, I wondered what a cyberspace version of the same thing would add or subtract. See a cop, enter a report into the system, and the system warns others who are plugged into it. Such a system, of course, would probably not work. The computer interface would eliminate all of the social glue that holds the truckers together. Reporting a cop isn’t just a database entry; it’s a tangible act of solidarity backed up with a voice and a way of speaking and rituals of appreciation that reproduce the sense of community while also decreasing the risks of driving the absurd schedules that the trucking companies claim to regard as practical.”
Biography:Phillip E. Agre was an associate professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been the author of research studies on the Internet. He edited The Network Observer, an online newsletter on Internet issues. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Wireless Technologies
Name of publication: The Network Observer
Title, headline, chapter name: Augmented Reality and Augmented Fantasy
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/tno/july-1994.html#augmented
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Kafoure, David