If, as the existence of a true many-to-many world network implies, everybody has the power to make artistic products of any kind and to distribute them to anybody on the planet essentially for the asking, the need for an entertainment industry suddenly disappears. Because the issue is power – the precondition of profit – there’s about as much chance that the communications industry will build a many-to-many network out of “enlightened self-interest” as there is that the Clinton administration will willingly abandon the Clipper encryption standard.
Predictor: Cappio, James
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 essay for Wired magazine, James Cappio, a New York lawyer, writes: ”The real significance of the Information Revolution is that a worldwide network centered on true many-to-many communication is our first chance since the Industrial Revolution to take large-scale power back into our own hands. Consider the forces that will actually build the NII [National Information Infrastructure]. If, as the existence of a true many-to-many world network implies, everybody has the power to make artistic products of any kind and to distribute them to anybody on the planet essentially for the asking, the need for an entertainment industry suddenly disappears. Because the issue is power – the precondition of profit – there’s about as much chance that the communications industry will build a many-to-many network out of ‘enlightened self-interest’ as there is that the Clinton administration will willingly abandon the Clipper encryption standard.”
Biography:James Cappio, a New York lawyer, wrote some articles for Wired in the mid-1990s. (Legislator/Politician/Lawyer.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Bad Attitude: Business as Usual on the Infobahn
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.06/attitude_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney