It’s like trying to predict back in 1910 the impact of the automobile on society – the highway system, gasoline refineries, motels instead of hotels, new dating patterns, increased social mobility, commuting to work, the importance of the rubber industry, smog, drive-thru restaurants, mechanized warfare, and on and on. The net will bring more than quantitative changes, it will bring *qualitative* changes. Things that were impossible will now become inevitable.
Predictor: Landwehr, Larry
Prediction, in context:In 1993, in the Computer Underground Digest, an open forum dedicated to sharing information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of diverse views, Larry Landwehr made the following observation: ”After you’ve been on the net for a while, it is easy to lose sight of just how wonderfully amazing the net is. If anything, the article deeply understated just how profoundly the net will change the future of humanity. It’s like trying to predict back in 1910 the impact of the automobile on society – the highway system, gasoline refineries, motels instead of hotels, new dating patterns, increased social mobility, commuting to work, the importance of the rubber industry, smog, drive-thru restaurants, mechanized warfare, and on and on. The net will bring more than quantitative changes, it will bring *qualitative* changes. Things that were impossible will now become inevitable.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Computer Underground Digest
Title, headline, chapter name: Some Comments on the London Times Educational Supplement Article
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest/CUDS5/cud529.txt
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne