Two kinds of agents will exist in [one] scenario: one will stay at home (on your wrist, in your pocket …) and one will live on the Net, surfing on your behalf … To some degree, the homebodies can be hermetically sealed. They will read bit streams about products and services broadcast in abundance through wired and wireless channels … They will function as we do today when they cruise the Net looking for interesting things … These Net-dwelling agents are the ones we need to worry about when it comes to privacy. They need to be tamper-proof, and we must find ways to preclude new forms of kidnapping (agent-napping). Sounds silly? Just wait until the courts begin to agonize over whether intelligent agents can testify against us.
Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 column for Wired magazine, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT’s Media Lab, writes:”Two kinds of agents will exist in [one] scenario: one will stay at home (on your wrist, in your pocket, in your radio) and one will live on the Net, surfing on your behalf, carrying messages back and forth. To some degree, the homebodies can be hermetically sealed. They will read bit streams about products and services broadcast in abundance through wired and wireless channels. They will scoop off subsets of information of personal interest – an act as simple as grabbing a stock quote for you, and as complicated as determining your interest in a segment of a talk show. These agents will be ‘all ears.’ Messenger agents will be more complicated. They will function as we do today when they cruise the Net looking for interesting things and people … These Net-dwelling agents are the ones we need to worry about when it comes to privacy. They need to be tamper-proof, and we must find ways to preclude new forms of kidnapping (agent-napping). Sounds silly? Just wait until the courts begin to agonize over whether intelligent agents can testify against us.”
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: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Intelligent Agents/AI
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: 000 000 111 – Double Agents
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.03/negroponte_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney