Users won’t stand for being confused or frustrated or for having their time wasted. The highway’s software platform will have to make it almost infallibly easy to find information, even if users don’t know what they’re looking for. There will be lots of information.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”Whether you give the command by voice, in writing, or by pointing, the selections you’re going to make will involve more complicated choices that just which movie to watch, and you’ll be able to make them easily. Users won’t stand for being confused or frustrated or for having their time wasted. The highway’s software platform will have to make it almost infallibly easy to find information, even if users don’t know what they’re looking for. There will be lots of information. The highway will have access to everything in hundreds of libraries and to all types of machines.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 4: Applications and Appliances
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 78, 79
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne