The real question in understanding the economics of bandwidth is: Are some bits worth more than others? The answer is clearly yes. Yet a more complex question is, Should the value of a bit vary not only in accordance with its essential character (i.e., a movie bit, a conversation bit, or a pacemaking bit) but also in accordance with who is using it? or when? or how? … bits not only have a different value, but that value varies in accordance with who is using them and how. There are suddenly welfare bits, minority bits, and handicapped bits. Congress will have to be very creative in working out a framework for an equitable system.
Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Being Digital,” Nicholas Negroponte writes: ”The real question in understanding the economics of bandwidth is: Are some bits worth more than others? The answer is clearly yes. Yet a more complex question is, Should the value of a bit vary not only in accordance with its essential character (i.e., a movie bit, a conversation bit, or a pacemaking bit) but also in accordance with who is using it? or when? or how? … bits not only have a different value, but that value varies in accordance with who is using them and how. There are suddenly welfare bits, minority bits, and handicapped bits. Congress will have to be very creative in working out a framework for an equitable system.”
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: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Bandwidth
Name of publication: Being Digital (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 2: Debunking Bandwidth
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 32
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne