The Constitution’s core values, I’m convinced, need not be transmogrified, or metamorphosed into oblivion, in the dim recesses of cyberspace. But to say that they need not be lost there is hardly to predict that they will not be. On the contrary, the danger is clear and present what they will be lost … It is not only the government that feels threatened by computer crime; both the owners and the users of private information services, bulletin boards, gateways, and networks feel equally vulnerable to this new breed of invisible trespasser. The response from the many who sense danger has been swift and often brutal.
Predictor: Tribe, Laurence H.
Prediction, in context:The 1997 book “Computers, Ethics, and Society,” edited by M. David Ermann, Mary B. Williams and Michele S. Shauf, carries a reprint of the Sept./Oct. 1991 The Humanist magazine article “The Constitution in Cyberspace” by Laurence H. Tribe. Tribe, a Constitutional scholar, suggests a Constitutional amendment that would clarify the relationship between new technologies and fundamental constitutional protections. He writes: ”The Constitution’s core values, I’m convinced, need not be transmogrified, or metamorphosed into oblivion, in the dim recesses of cyberspace. But to say that they need not be lost there is hardly to predict that they will not be. On the contrary, the danger is clear and present what they will be lost. The ‘event horizon’ against which this transformation might occur is already plainly visible. Electronic trespassers like Kevin Mitnick don’t stop with creaking pay phones but break into NORAD (the North American Defense Command computer in Colorado Springs). Less challenging to national security but more ubiquitously threatening, computer ‘crackers’ like Robert Morris download individuals’ credit histories from institutions like TRW and start charging phone calls (and more) to their numbers, set up loose ‘worm’ programs that have shut down thousands of linked computers, and spread ‘computer viruses’ through business and home PCs. It is not only the government that feels threatened by computer crime; both the owners and the users of private information services, bulletin boards, gateways, and networks feel equally vulnerable to this new breed of invisible trespasser. The response from the many who sense danger has been swift and often brutal.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Crime/Fraud/Terrorism
Name of publication: Computers, Ethics, and Society (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: The Constitution in Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 210
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne