Severed from unreliable paper, text has become all but inextinguishable … paper may be on the skids, but text is eternal. Immortality may be the least of the surprises that this new medium of electronic text will deliver. Video enthusiasts are quick to argue that images are intrinsically more compelling than words, but they ignore a quality unique to text. While video is received by the eyes, text resonates in the mind. Text invites our minds to complete the word-based images it serves up, while video excludes such mental extensions. Until physical brain-to-machine links become a reality, text will offer the most direct of paths between the mind and the external world.
Predictor: Saffo, Paul
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Paul Saffo, a research fellow at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, California, writes:”Severed from unreliable paper, text has become all but inextinguishable … paper may be on the skids, but text is eternal. Immortality may be the least of the surprises that this new medium of electronic text will deliver. Video enthusiasts are quick to argue that images are intrinsically more compelling than words, but they ignore a quality unique to text. While video is received by the eyes, text resonates in the mind. Text invites our minds to complete the word-based images it serves up, while video excludes such mental extensions. Until physical brain-to-machine links become a reality, text will offer the most direct of paths between the mind and the external world.”
Biography:Paul Saffo was the director of a decades-old research and forecasting foundation called the Institute for the Future, located in Menlo Park, Calif., in the 1990s. This Institute was a non-profit think tank that consulted for a large number of businesses and government entities, including telecommunications and consumer companies. (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Publishing
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Hot New Medium: Text
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/1.2_saffo_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney