At some point not far in the future, a single wire running into each home will be able to deliver all of a household’s digital data. The wire will either be fiber, which is what long distance telephone calls are carried on now, or coaxial cable … That single wire bringing the network will certainly carry much more than phone calls, movies, news. But we can no more imagine what the information highway will carry in 25 years than a Stone Age man using a crude knife could have envision Ghiberti’s Baptistery doors in Florence.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”At some point not far in the future, a single wire running into each home will be able to deliver all of a household’s digital data. The wire will either be fiber, which is what long distance telephone calls are carried on now, or coaxial cable, which currently brings us cable television signals. If the bits are interpreted as voice calls, the phone will ring. If they are video images, they will show up on the television set. If they are online news services, they will arrive as written text and pictures on a computer screen. That single wire bringing the network will certainly carry much more than phone calls, movies, news. But we can no more imagine what the information highway will carry in 25 years than a Stone Age man using a crude knife could have envision Ghiberti’s Baptistery doors in Florence. Only when the highway arrives will all its possibilities be understood.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 2
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 34
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney