Movies, television programs, and all sorts of other digital information will be stored on “servers,” which are computers with capacious disks. Servers will provide information for use anywhere on the network. If you ask to see a particular movie, check a fact, or retrieve your electronic mail, your request will be routed by switches to the server or servers storing that information.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”Movies, television programs, and all sorts of other digital information will be stored on ‘servers,’ which are computers with capacious disks. Servers will provide information for use anywhere on the network. If you ask to see a particular movie, check a fact, or retrieve your electronic mail, your request will be routed by switches to the server or servers storing that information. You won’t know whether the material that arrives at your house is stored on a server down the road or on the other side of the country, nor will it matter. The requested digital data will be retrieved from the server and routed by switches back to your television, personal computer, or telephone – your information appliances. These digital devices will succeed for the same reason their analog precursors did – they will make some aspect of life easier. Unlike the dedicated word processors that brought the first microprocessors to many offices, these information appliances will be general-purpose, programmable computers connected to the information highway.”
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: Pipeline/Switching/Hardware
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 67
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney