There are all these wise-asses in Washington who really think that they can choose technologies. They think they know better … It’s always going to be that way. It’s not going to change with Clinton and Gore. The dog technologies run to Washington, decked out like poodles. The politician is always the dog’s best friend.
Predictor: Gilder, George
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, executive editor Kevin Kelly interviews George Gilder, author of “Wealth and Poverty” and “Telecosm.” Kelly quotes Gilder: ”The role for the U.S. government is to make government as efficient as possible. Government operates leviathan laboratories, hospitals, universities, bureaucracies, and post offices, and they all should be interconnected with fiber. The government always discovers a technology after its moment is passing. If you’re a winner, you don’t go to the government. You’re too busy. You’ve got too many customers. It’s the people with no customers who end up besieging the government. There are all these wise-asses in Washington who really think that they can choose technologies. They think they know better. They get bowled over by every earnest representative of IBM who comes up to talk to them. Just now the U.S. government thinks that HDTV is absolutely the future of the world because all the old farts at Zenith, and the broadcasting moguls who aren’t really making it with the new computer technologies, are converging on Washington. It’s always going to be that way. It’s not going to change with Clinton and Gore. The dog technologies run to Washington, decked out like poodles. The politician is always the dog’s best friend.”
Biography:George Gilder was a pioneer the formulation of the theory of supply-side economics. In his major book “Microcosm” (1989), he explored the quantum roots of the new electronic technologies. His book “Life After Television,” published by W.W. Norton (1992), is a prophecy of computers and telecommunications displacing the broadcast-TV empire. He followed it with another classic, “Telecosm.” (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: George Gilder: When Bandwidth is Free: The Dark Fiber Interview
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/gilder_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney