The prediction, in brief:

Of all the countries jumping on the information technology bandwagon, Singapore is the most vulnerable to the profound social changes that large-scale digital integration will bring. At worst, its brittle, authoritarian society will stagnate. At best, it will be drastically transformed; its people liberated.

Predictor: Sandfort, Sandy

Prediction, in context:

In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Sandy Sandfort covers the possibilities the Internet brings to the nation of Singapore. Sandfort writes:”One of Al Gore’s rhetorical favorites is the creation of an American ‘information super-highway’ to keep the U.S. on the cutting edge of technology – and ahead of the competition. Amid the rhetoric, no one seems to have noticed that a tiny, third-world island-nation is already well on its way to building its own information super-highway. That country is Singapore, and its avowed national policy is to become the world’s first ‘intelligent island.’ There is a poignant irony in that policy. Of all the countries jumping on the information technology bandwagon, Singapore is the most vulnerable to the profound social changes that large-scale digital integration will bring. At worst, its brittle, authoritarian society will stagnate. At best, it will be drastically transformed; its people liberated.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1993

Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics

Subtopic: Third-World Nations

Name of publication: Wired

Title, headline, chapter name: The Intelligent Island: We Asked Sandy Sandfort to Tell Us Whether Technology Will Ultimately Liberate the Intelligent Island

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/sandfort_pr.html

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