My dream for the interface is that computers will be more like people. This idea is vulnerable to criticism for being too romantic, vague, or unrealizable. If anything, I would criticize it for shooting too low … What we today call “agent-based interfaces” will emerge as the dominant means by which computers and people talk with one another. There will be specific points in space and time where bits get converted into atoms and the reverse. Whether that is the transmission of a liquid crystal or the reverberation of a speech generator, the interface will need size, shape, color, tone of voice, and all the other sensory paraphernalia.
Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Being Digital,” Nicholas Negroponte writes: ”My dream for the interface is that computers will be more like people. This idea is vulnerable to criticism for being too romantic, vague, or unrealizable. If anything, I would criticize it for shooting too low. There may be many exotic channels of communications of which we may not even be aware today … Future human-computer interface will be rooted in delegation, not the vernacular of direct manipulation – pull down, pop up, click – and mouse interfaces … What we today call ‘agent-based interfaces’ will emerge as the dominant means by which computers and people talk with one another. There will be specific points in space and time where bits get converted into atoms and the reverse. Whether that is the transmission of a liquid crystal or the reverberation of a speech generator, the interface will need size, shape, color, tone of voice, and all the other sensory paraphernalia.”
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: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: Being Digital (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 7: Where People and Bits Meet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 101, 102
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne