The present is more frightening than any imaginable future I might dream up … If Marshall McLuhan were alive today, he’d have a nervous breakdown.
Predictor: Gibson, William
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for The New York Times, Peter Lewis interviews William Gibson, author of “Neuromancer,” the 1984 science fiction novel that first used the term “cyberspace.” Lewis writes: ”Until late last week, Mr. Gibson had never logged onto a computer network to witness first-hand the cyberspace realms that he so evocatively described – long before cyber-this and cyber-that entered the pop vocabulary, and long before millions of people and tens of thousands of businesses hooked up their computers to the Internet. ‘The present is more frightening than any imaginable future I might dream up,’ Mr. Gibson said. ‘If Marshall McLuhan were alive today, he’d have a nervous breakdown … I’m not a high-tech guy at all. I don’t have a modem, or an e-mail address. I expect I’ll eventually get an address just so I can check all that stuff out, but e-mail doesn’t have much appeal for me because I already get too many faxes. I have a business phone, and if I want to reach someone, I just phone them.”
Biography:William Gibson published the influential book “Neuromancer,” in which he coined the term “cyberspace,” in 1984. Through the early 1990s, he was asked to comment regularly on the coming age of the Internet despite the fact that he claimed to use it rarely, if ever. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: May 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: Online with William Gibson; Present at the Creation; Startled at the Reality
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=13ac660051707a4adb36b74b2dfb8729&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlzV&_md5=2b23efb958392054451dad5f84750d70
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty