Computers will become a truly useful part of our society only when they are linked by an infrastructure like the highway system and the electric power grid, creating a new kind of free market for information services. Imagine the United States without its highways. Our millions of cars, buses and trucks would be driven in our own back yards and neighborhood parking lots, with occasional forays by the daring few along the uncharted, unpredictable and treacherous dirt roads, full of unspeakable terrors. A ridiculous picture? Perhaps, but it is not far off the mark if we are talking not about transportation but about today’s computers and the exchange of information among them.
Predictor: Dertouzos, Michael
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for Technology Review, MIT researcher/administrator Michael Dertouzos talks about the “information highway:” ”Computers will become a truly useful part of our society only when they are linked by an infrastructure like the highway system and the electric power grid, creating a new kind of free market for information services. Imagine the United States without its highways. Our millions of cars, buses and trucks would be driven in our own back yards and neighborhood parking lots, with occasional forays by the daring few along the uncharted, unpredictable and treacherous dirt roads, full of unspeakable terrors. A ridiculous picture? Perhaps, but it is not far off the mark if we are talking not about transportation but about today’s computers and the exchange of information among them. Although computers are now numerous and widespread, they are used mainly in isolation. When they communicate, they do so ineffectively, through arcane and arbitrary procedures. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
Biography:Michael Dertouzos was director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and the author of “The Unfinished Revolution.” He led a project intended to make computers adapt to people. He outlined a comprehensive proposal for a national information “infrastructure” in a 1991 article for Technology Review. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Technology Review
Title, headline, chapter name: Building the Information Marketplace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/599/939/33335322w2/purl=rcl
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Dube, Kristin