The prediction, in brief:

I want to know what we are becoming if the first objects we look upon each day are simulations into which we deploy our virtual selves.

Predictor: Turkle, Sherry

Prediction, in context:

In her 1995 book “Life on the Screen,” Sherry Turkle – an accomplished social psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist from MIT whose studies centered around people and computers for decades – writes:”In the spirit of Whitman’s reflections on the child, I want to know what we are becoming if the first objects we look upon each day are simulations into which we deploy our virtual selves. In other words, this is not a book about computers. Rather, it is a book about the intense relationships people have with computers and how these relationships are changing the way we think and feel. Along with the movement from a culture of speculation to a culture of simulation have come changes in what computers do for us and in what they do to us – to our relationships and our ways of thinking of ourselves.”

Biography:

Sherry Turkle was the author of “Life on the Screen: Computers and the Human Spirit.” and a professor of the psychology of science at MIT. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: Relationships

Name of publication: Life on the Screen (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: Introduction: Identity on the Internet

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 22

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney