What I see happening … is our wholesale wiring. And what the wires carry is not the stuff of the soul. I might feel differently if that was what they were transmitting. But it’s not. It is data … When everyone is wired and humming, most of what will be going through those wires is that sort of information. If it were soul-data, that might be a different thing, but soul-data doesn’t travel through the wires.
Predictor: Birkerts, Sven
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 HarperÕs Magazine article, four experts on the impact of modern computing and telecommunications technology debate the effects of such technology on modern society. The article includes comments by Sven Birkerts, the author of “The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age,” published by Faber and Faber, an excerpt from which appeared in the May 1994 issue of Harper’s Magazine. Birkerts says: ”What I see happening … is our wholesale wiring. And what the wires carry is not the stuff of the soul. I might feel differently if that was what they were transmitting. But it’s not. It is data. The supreme capability that this particular chip-driven silicon technology has is to transfer binary units of information. And therefore, as it takes over the world, it privileges those units of information. When everyone is wired and humming, most of what will be going through those wires is that sort of information. If it were soul-data, that might be a different thing, but soul-data doesn’t travel through the wires.Ó
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Harper's Magazine
Title, headline, chapter name: What Are We Doing On-line? A Debate on the Social Consequences of Online Communications
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 35 - 46
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne