The prediction, in brief:

The construction technology for virtual cities – just like that of bricks-and-mortar ones – must provide for putting up boundaries and erecting access controls, and it must allow cyberspace architects and urban designers to organize virtual places into public-to-private hierarchies … The technological means to create private places in cyberspace are available, but the right to create these places remains a fiercely contested issue. Can you always keep your bits to yourself? Is your home page your castle? These are still open questions.

Predictor: Mitchell, William J.

Prediction, in context:

In his 1994 book “City of Bits,” MIT computer scientist William J. Mitchell writes:”It doesn’t rain in cyberspace, so shelter is not an architectural issue. But privacy certainly is. So the construction technology for virtual cities – just like that of bricks-and-mortar ones – must provide for putting up boundaries and erecting access controls, and it must allow cyberspace architects and urban designers to organize virtual places into public-to-private hierarchies … the Clinton administration pushed its plans for the Clipper Chip, a device that would accomplish much the same thing as RSA [Pretty Good Privacy encryption] but would provide a built-in ‘trapdoor’ for law-enforcement wiretapping and file decoding. The effect is a lot like that of leaving a spare set of your front door keys in a safe at FBI headquarters. Opinion about this divided along predictable lines … The technological means to create private places in cyberspace are available, but the right to create these places remains a fiercely contested issue. Can you always keep your bits to yourself? Is your home page your castle? These are still open questions.”  

Biography:

William J. Mitchell was a professor and dean of architecture at MIT and the author of the predictive book “City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn” (1994). He also taught at Harvard, Yale, Carnegie-Mellon and Cambridge Universities. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: Virtual Communities

Name of publication: City of Bits

Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 5: Soft Cities

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-books/City_of_Bits/index.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney