Encryption is not limited to a single layer. If I want to send you a secret message, I promise you that I can, without any risk of anyone else being able to decode it. I simply place an additional layer of encryption on top of the data, using an unbreakable code. Such codes need not be the wizardry of mathematicians or the result of massive electronics, but can be simple but secure.
Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 column for Wired magazine, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT’s Media Lab, writes: ”Security and privacy are deeply interwoven. The government is asking us to sail in an ocean of data, but it wants the ability to board our (Clippered) ships at any time. This has outraged the digerati and has become the object of enormous debate … I yawn. This is why. Encryption is not limited to a single layer. If I want to send you a secret message, I promise you that I can, without any risk of anyone else being able to decode it. I simply place an additional layer of encryption on top of the data, using an unbreakable code. Such codes need not be the wizardry of mathematicians or the result of massive electronics, but can be simple but secure. To prove this, I have put 105 rows of 12 bits on the spine of my book, ‘Being Digital.’ These bits contain a message. I bet that you will never be able to decode it. If classrooms of hotshot math students want to try, be my guest … But don’t spend too much time. It is not nearly as easy as the title of this story: James Bond.”
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: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
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