With HDTV and high-quality sound flowing easily over the NII, home recreation would take a different form … vendors would offer music and video rentals over the NII. Not only would this system be cheaper for individuals … but it would also bring to our ears and eyes an entertainment library thousands if not millions of times richer than any we might own. Artists, too, would be more fairly compensated for their creations, having royalties credited to them automatically.
Predictor: Dertouzos, Michael
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for Technology Review, MIT researcher/administrator Michael Dertouzos writes:”One of the most exciting aspects of the NII [National Information Infrastructure] would be its ability to transmit high-definition television, or HDTV. Much of the present debate over HDTV centers on how to squeeze the additional picture information into the scarce space available on the broadcast spectrum. But this concern will disappear once all homes are connected to the NII via fiber optics. With the huge capacity of glass fibers, and with the NII’s flexible transport capabilities, transporting HDTV will become a relatively trivial exercise … Woven into the information infrastructure, the HDTV standard – along with every other service on the NII – would become deeply embedded in the national fabric. With HDTV and high-quality sound flowing easily over the NII, home recreation would take a different form … vendors would offer music and video rentals over the NII. Not only would this system be cheaper for individuals … but it would also bring to our ears and eyes an entertainment library thousands if not millions of times richer than any we might own. Artists, too, would be more fairly compensated for their creations, having royalties credited to them automatically.”
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: Getting, Sharing Information
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.infortrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/599/939/33335311w2/purl=rcl
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney