Marshall McLuhan’s famous statement – “We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us” – is … true for the future … The most potent technology transforming the present … is the vast array of electronic communications technologies which are now being widely touted as composing the Information Superhighway … Many once-separate and expensive technologies are being woven together into a gigantic, global, and comparatively inexpensive information network which, among other things, is destroying the necessity of traveling to a single centralized location to work, or to trade, or be entertained, or even to govern. It is now increasingly possible, and preferable, to telework, to telemarket, to teleview, and to telegovern. It thus is no longer necessary, nor desirable, anywhere in the world to continue to create huge urban centers … It can all come to you.
Predictor: Dator, Jim
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 speech for the International Conference on Development, Ethics and the Environment in Kuala Lumpur titled “Coming Ready or Not: The World We Are Leaving Future Generations, and Our Responsibility Toward Them,” futurist Jim Dator says: ”Marshall McLuhan’s famous statement – ‘We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us’ – is accurate for all of human history, and prehistory. It is also true for the future. So what new, emerging, or developing technologies lie ahead, and how might they impact society? The most potent technology transforming the present … is the vast array of electronic communications technologies which are now being widely touted as composing the Information Superhighway. Once, all eyes focused on television as a major agent of change. Then some people began to see how people were using computers to do more communicating than computing, and speculated on the social consequences of that. Now we see that many once-separate and expensive technologies are being woven together into a gigantic, global, and comparatively inexpensive information network which, among other things, is destroying the necessity of traveling to a single centralized location to work, or to trade, or be entertained, or even to govern. It is now increasingly possible, and preferable, to telework, to telemarket, to teleview, and to telegovern. It thus is no longer necessary, nor desirable, anywhere in the world to continue to create huge urban centers which require people to live near, or travel to, a central place of work, commerce, play, or governance. It all can come to you, in your village, or on your remote mountain top, or even (as it does to me) to the most remote spot on this Earth, Honolulu.”
Biography:Jim Dator was a futurist who is credited with founding the first Future Studies program in 1971. He has been director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies at the University of Hawaii. (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: International Conference on Development, Ethics and the Environment, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, January 13-16, 1995
Title, headline, chapter name: Coming Ready or Not: The World We Are Leaving Future Generations, and Our Responsibility Toward Them
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/dator/other/religion.pdf
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney