The prediction, in brief:

We will socialize in digital neighborhoods in which physical space will be irrelevant and time will play a different role. Twenty years from now, when you look out a window, what you see may be five thousand miles and six time zones away. When you watch an hour of television, it may have been delivered to your home in less than a second. Reading about Patagonia can include the sensory experience of going there. A book by William Buckley can be a conversation with him.

Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas

Prediction, in context:

In his 1995 book “Being Digital,” Nicholas Negroponte writes:”As we interconnect ourselves, many of the values of a nation-state will give way to those of both larger and smaller electronic communities. We will socialize in digital neighborhoods in which physical space will be irrelevant and time will play a different role. Twenty years from now, when you look out a window, what you see may be five thousand miles and six time zones away. When you watch an hour of television, it may have been delivered to your home in less than a second. Reading about Patagonia can include the sensory experience of going there. A book by William Buckley can be a conversation with him.”

Biography:

Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder of MIT’s Media Lab and a popular speaker and writer about technologies of the future, wrote one of the 1990s’ best-selling books about the new future of communications, “Being Digital.” (Pioneer/Originator.)

Date of prediction: February 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: Virtual Communities

Name of publication: Being Digital (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: Introduction: The Paradox of a Book

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 7

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne