You have to be part of the communications network to participate fully in the economy … So you can make an economic argument … But also, I want you to participate in the communications system in the country for purely social reasons. I’d like you to be able to cast your vote in an informed way. I’d like you to be able to express your opinions, under the First Amendment, and to share in the development of community. Third, I have health and safety reasons for wanting you to participate in the communications system. I’d like you to be able to call for help. I’d like you to be able to get a diagnosis from an expert doctor in a remote location.
Predictor: Hundt, Reed
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wired magazine, John Heilemann, Washington correspondent for The Economist, interviews Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt. Hundt tells Heilemann about the positive future benefits of the “information superhighway” offering “universal” service:”You have to be part of the communications network to participate fully in the economy. If I give you a chance to participate in the economy, I’m probably increasing the size of the economy. So you can make an economic argument in favor of [universal service]. But also, I want you to participate in the communications system in the country for purely social reasons. I’d like you to be able to cast your vote in an informed way. I’d like you to be able to express your opinions, under the First Amendment, and to share in the development of community. Third, I have health and safety reasons for wanting you to participate in the communications system. I’d like you to be able to call for help. I’d like you to be able to get a diagnosis from an expert doctor in a remote location.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Read Hundt: Wired Asks the Chair of the FCC About Cutting Cable Rates and Competition, Censoring Howard Stern, and John Malone’s Suggestion That He Be Taken Out and Shot
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/hundt_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney