Future rooms will know that you just sat down to eat, that you have gone to sleep, just stepped into the shower, took the dog for a walk. A phone would never ring. If you were not there, it won’t ring because you are not there. If you are there and digital butler decides to connect you, the nearest doorknob may say, “Excuse me, Madam,” and make the connection. Some people call this ubiquitous computing, which it is, and some of the same people present it as the opposite of using interface agents, which it is not. These two concepts are one and the same.
Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Being Digital,” Nicholas Negroponte writes: ”Future rooms will know that you just sat down to eat, that you have gone to sleep, just stepped into the shower, took the dog for a walk. A phone would never ring. If you were not there, it won’t ring because you are not there. If you are there and digital butler decides to connect you, the nearest doorknob may say, ‘Excuse me, Madam,’ and make the connection. Some people call this ubiquitous computing, which it is, and some of the same people present it as the opposite of using interface agents, which it is not. These two concepts are one and the same. The ubiquity of each person’s computer presence will be driven by the various and disconnected computer processes in their current lives (airline reservation systems, point-of-sales data, on-line service utilization, metering, messaging). These will be increasingly interconnected. If your early-morning flight to Dallas is delayed, your alarm clock can ring a bit later and the car service automatically notified in accordance with traffic predictions.”
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: February 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Human-Machine Interaction
Name of publication: Being Digital (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 17: Digital Fables and Foibles
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 212
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne