Cyber-warfare [could] use the ultimate 3-D techniques of virtual reality, electronic simulation, and interactive video. Televised war would look, sound, and eventually perhaps even feel and smell so much like the real thing that real war would no longer be necessary.
Predictor: Posvar, Wesley W.
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age,” Lawrence Grossman, former president of NBC News and PBS, writes: ”In March 1991 … I traveled to Pittsburgh to deliver the annual American Experience lecture at the University of Pittsburgh … As it happened, the university’s genial president, Dr. Wesley W. Posvar, stole my thunder. I met Dr. Posvar at a dinner reception immediately before my lecture … Our conversation prompted Dr. Posvar, in introducing me to the Pittsburgh audience, to speculate on whether future wars, like current presidential election campaigns, might actually be fought entirely on television screens instead of on battlefields. ‘Cyber-warfare,’ he suggested, could ‘use the ultimate 3-D techniques of virtual reality, electronic simulation, and interactive video. Televised war would look, sound, and eventually perhaps even feel and smell so much like the real thing that real war would no longer be necessary.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Peacekeeping/Warfare
Name of publication: The Electronic Republic (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 1: Transforming Democracy – An Overview
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 10, 11
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne