Everybody has gotten so enamored with the decentralization of computers, and the idea that they can put a computer on their desks, that they’re missing the countertrend, which is that all these computers are starting to talk to each other, and that the computing resource that they have available to them is a utility in a sense. So in fact there’s a sort of countertrend to the decentralization of computers, which is this amazing centralization of the computing resource. As communication gets good enough, where something gets done becomes less and less relevant.
Predictor: Hillis, W. Daniel
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly and Steven Levy quote Danny Hillis, the co-founder and chief scientist of Thinking Machines, a supercomputer company designed, in part, to create the sort of machine that Hillis was thinking about when he said, “I want to design a computer that will be proud of me.” Hillis says: ”Pretty soon you’ll have no more idea of what computer you’re using than you have an idea of where your electricity is generated when you turn on the light. I think everybody has gotten so enamored with the decentralization of computers, and the idea that they can put a computer on their desks, that they’re missing the countertrend, which is that all these computers are starting to talk to each other, and that the computing resource that they have available to them is a utility in a sense. So in fact there’s a sort of countertrend to the decentralization of computers, which is this amazing centralization of the computing resource. As communication gets good enough, where something gets done becomes less and less relevant.”
Biography:W. Daniel Hillis, vice president of research and development at the Walt Disney Company, an inventor of massively parallel computing, was also founder and chief scientist of Thinking Machines Corporation. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Kay + Hillis: Wired Brings Together Two Legendary Minds: Alan Kay and Danny Hillis
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.01/kay.hillis_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney