And, if it is not clear who owns what in digitized hyperspace, it is also not clear, beyond the sale of hardware, just where the profits are … If telephony and cable put a lock on the hard-wiring, watch for pirate satellite ships.
Predictor: Coover, Robert
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 New York Times article, writer George Johnson quotes Robert Coover. Johnson writes: ”Someday, the visionaries tell us, we will be able to communicate with just about anybody by sending an electronic message; no matter where they are, the bundle of bits will find them … someday perhaps, but not yet … when we asked four writers to give us their visions of the information future … we had to resort to primitive telephone calls to contact Robert Coover, who runs a hyperfiction workshop at Brown University … [Coover said:] ‘Digital convergence is … radically disruptive: to communications systems, to the knowledge and entertainment industry, to human life in general. Ownership, whether of the information itself or the means of its transmission, is highly problematic and potentially an explosive political and economic issue, one perhaps to be fought out, not on the streets, but on the nets, where rebellion and sabotage and telecom-baron wars can be as fatal as a bomb. And, if it is not clear who owns what in digitized hyperspace, it is also not clear, beyond the sale of hardware, just where the profits are. Early developers of this new communications arena are hoping to turn it into a vast worldwide marketplace and to take their cut by renting stalls, as it were, but exclusive access had never been a principle of the ether, home of the computer nets. If telephony and cable put a lock on the hard-wiring, watch for pirate satellite ships.'”
Biography:Robert Coover was one of the pioneers of online literature. He has been a teacher of experimental courses in hypertext and multimedia narrative at Brown University. His 1992 essay on hypertext in the New York Times Book Review, “The End of Books,” described and publicized the idea of digital literature. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: October 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: We Are the Wired: Some Views On the Fiberoptic Ties That Bind
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=2a36a194c9a458e14d8de9643883255d&_docnum=4&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlAl&_md5=75e1bac47fdc16cf2dea2332a2db34a9
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney