The prediction, in brief:

Our primary difficulty in comprehending the global mind of a network culture will be that it does not have a central “I” to appeal to. No headquarters; no head. That will be most exasperating and discouraging. In the past, adventurous men have sought the holy grail, or the source of the Nile, or Prester John, or the secrets of the pyramids. In the future, the quest will be to find the “I am” of the global mind, the source of its coherence. Many souls will lose all they have searching for it – and many will be the theories of where the global mind’s “I am” hides. But it will be a never-ending quest like the others before it.

Predictor: Kelly, Kevin

Prediction, in context:

In his 1994 book “Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World,” Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired magazine, writes:”There is a sense in which a global mind also emerges in a network culture … the union of computer and nature – of telephones and human brains and more … Our primary difficulty in comprehending the global mind of a network culture will be that it does not have a central ‘I’ to appeal to. No headquarters; no head. That will be most exasperating and discouraging. In the past, adventurous men have sought the holy grail, or the source of the Nile, or Prester John, or the secrets of the pyramids. In the future, the quest will be to find the ‘I am’ of the global mind, the source of its coherence. Many souls will lose all they have searching for it – and many will be the theories of where the global mind’s ‘I am’ hides. But it will be a never-ending quest like the others before it.”

Biography:

Kevin Kelly was the author of the book “Out of Control” and the first executive editor of the highly influential Wired magazine. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: General

Name of publication: Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World

Title, headline, chapter name: Network Economics

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 202

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