Hyperlinks on the information highway will let you find answers to your questions when they occur to you and you’re interested. Let’s say you’re watching the news and you see someone you don’t recognize walking with the British prime minister. You want to know who she is. Using your television’s remote control, you will point at the person. That action will bring up a biography and a list of other news accounts in which she figured recently. Point at something on the list, and you will be able to read it or watch it, jumping any number of times from topic to topic and gathering video, audio, and text information from all over the world.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”When you point at an object on the screen to bring up information about the object, you are employing a form of ‘hyperlinking.’ Hyperlinking lets users leap from informational place to informational place instantly, just as spaceships in science fiction jump from geographic place to geographic place through ‘hyperspace.’ Hyperlinks on the information highway will let you find answers to your questions when they occur to you and you’re interested. Let’s say you’re watching the news and you see someone you don’t recognize walking with the British prime minister. You want to know who she is. Using your television’s remote control, you will point at the person. That action will bring up a biography and a list of other news accounts in which she figured recently. Point at something on the list, and you will be able to read it or watch it, jumping any number of times from topic to topic and gathering video, audio, and text information from all over the world.”
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: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 4: Applications and Appliances
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 82
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne