Agents will run as fully fledged programs on any computer … That sounds good if you want capable agents, bad if you are worried about security. An agent looks disconcertingly like a computer virus, doing things on other people’s computers they may not want done.
Predictor: Bennahum, David S.
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for The Economist, David S. Bennahum discusses intelligent-agent software technology and the effect it will have on networks. He writes:”A software company in California, General Magic, has pushed agent technology as far as any company to date. Over the past three years, it has developed a commercial standard for software agents. It calls these agents ‘intelligent,’ and anything in the computer world called intelligent is by definition not. But they may prove extremely capable … General Magic’s agents will run as fully fledged programs on any computer that has the company’s Telescript system running on it, and can move between such computers as they see fit. That sounds good if you want capable agents, bad if you are worried about security. An agent looks disconcertingly like a computer virus, doing things on other people’s computers they may not want done. General Magic promises that Telescript stops its agents from doing any harm by isolating them. A Telescript Agent is a program only when Telescript says so. Drop it into the network at a place where another operating system, such as Unix or Windows-NT, is in charge, and it is just meaningless data, no more alive than the transcript of a gene. That, anyway, is the plan; whether the world’s less-public-spirited hackers will let it all go that smoothly remains to be seen.”
Date of prediction: May 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Intelligent Agents/AI
Name of publication: The Economist
Title, headline, chapter name: Have Data, Will Travel
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://memex.org/havedatawilltravel.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney