What Does a Nobel Prize for Radio Astronomy Have to Do with Your Telephone? It’s Been a Decade Since the Break-up of AT&T. Has the Spirit Passed Out of its Bell Labs, as Some Charge? Or is it Still the Preeminent Technology Lab in the U.S.? | Imagining the Internet

The prediction, in brief:

The successful technology company of the future will likely emerge, not from the computer industry, with its vested interest in the microprocessor box, but from the telecommunications industry, with its tradition of networking and interoperability.

Predictor: Partridge, Waring

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Richard Rapaport goes to visit AT&T’s Bell Labs research scientists and administrators, interviewing Waring Partridge, AT&T’s vice president for multimedia strategy. Rapaport writes:”Throughout the conversation, Partridge returns to one point: the successful technology company of the future will likely emerge, not from the computer industry, with its vested interest in the microprocessor box, but from the telecommunications industry, with its tradition of networking and interoperability.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure

Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry

Name of publication: Wired

Title, headline, chapter name: What Does a Nobel Prize for Radio Astronomy Have to Do with Your Telephone? It’s Been a Decade Since the Break-up of AT&T. Has the Spirit Passed Out of its Bell Labs, as Some Charge? Or is it Still the Preeminent Technology Lab in the U.S.?

Quote Type: Paraphrase

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.04/bell.labs_pr.html

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