Elon University
The prediction, in brief:

The information superhighway may be mostly hype today, but it is an understatement about tomorrow. It will exist beyond people’s wildest predictions.

Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas

Prediction, in context:

In his 1995 book “Being Digital” Nicholas Negroponte of MIT writes: ”My optimism comes from the empowering nature of being digital. The access, the mobility, and the ability to effect change are what will make the future so different from the present. The information superhighway may be mostly hype today, but it is an understatement about tomorrow. It will exist beyond people’s wildest predictions. As children appropriate a global-information resource, and as they discover that only adults need learner’s permits, we are bound to find new hope and dignity in places where very little existed before … Being digital is different. We are not waiting on any invention. It is here. It is now. It is almost genetic in its nature, in that each generation will become more digital than the preceding one.”

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: Information Infrastructure

Subtopic: General

Name of publication: Being Digital (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: An Age of Optimism

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 231

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Jagrup, Shavanna