I wish there were people in the Electronic Frontier whose moral integrity unquestionably matched the unleashed power of those digital machines … The future is a dark road and our speed is headlong.
Predictor: Sterling, Bruce
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 essay that is included on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Web site as a reprint from Science Fiction Eye #10, author and cyberspace commentator Bruce Sterling writes: ”I wish there were people in the Computer Revolution who could inspire, and deserved to inspire [an extremely high level of] trust. I wish there were people in the Electronic Frontier whose moral integrity unquestionably matched the unleashed power of those digital machines. A society is in dire straits when it puts its Bohemia in power. I tremble for my country when I contemplate this prospect. And yet it’s possible. If dire straits come, it can even be the last best hope … These are timeless issues: civil rights, knowledge, power, freedom and privacy, the necessary steps that a civilized society must take to protect itself from criminals. There is no finality in politics; it creates itself anew, it must be dealt with every day. The future is a dark road and our speed is headlong. I didn’t ask for power or responsibility. I’m a science fiction writer; I only wanted to play with Big Ideas in my cheerfully lunatic sandbox. What little benefit I myself can contribute to society would likely be best employed in writing better SF [science fiction] novels. I intend to write those better novels, if I can. But in the meantime I seem to have accumulated a few odd shreds of influence. It’s a very minor kind of power, and doubtless more than I deserve; but power without responsibility is a monstrous thing.”
Biography:Bruce Sterling, a writer, consultant and science fiction enthusiast, wrote or co-wrote “Schismatrix,” “The Hacker Crackdown” and “The Difference Engine” and edited “Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.” In the 1990s, he wrote tech articles for Fortune, Harper’s, Details, Whole Earth Review and Wired, where he was a contributing writer from its founding. He published the nonfiction book “Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years” in 2002. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Title, headline, chapter name: A Statement of Principle
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/doc/eegtti/eeg_266.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Uhlfelder, Evelyn C.