Computer viruses and worms are maliciously constructed agents-fanning out, like Fagin’s boys, to cause trouble. Will there will be a criminal underclass? … Since agents are easy to reproduce, cyberspace may be flooded with billions of them; how will population be controlled? How will the law deal with agents that perform important tasks on behalf of distant, perhaps oblivious originators? Even if our agents turn out to be very smart, and always perform impeccably, will we ever fully trust them? And how will we deal with the old paradox of the slave? We will want our agents to be as smart as possible in order to do our bidding most effectively, but the more intelligent they are, the more we will have to worry about losing control and the agents taking over … The burgeoning, increasingly indispensable, programmed proletariats of cyberspace cities now live invisibly on disk drives.
Predictor: Mitchell, William J.
Prediction, in context:In his 1994 book “City of Bits,” MIT computer scientist William J. Mitchell writes:”It isn’t hard to imagine the social and urban problems that could emerge as agent populations grow. Computer viruses and worms are maliciously constructed agents-fanning out, like Fagin’s boys, to cause trouble. Will there will be a criminal underclass? Will faulty programming produce destructive, uncontrollable rogue agents? Since agents are easy to reproduce, cyberspace may be flooded with billions of them; how will population be controlled? How will the law deal with agents that perform important tasks on behalf of distant, perhaps oblivious originators? Even if our agents turn out to be very smart, and always perform impeccably, will we ever fully trust them? And how will we deal with the old paradox of the slave? We will want our agents to be as smart as possible in order to do our bidding most effectively, but the more intelligent they are, the more we will have to worry about losing control and the agents taking over. So history replays itself. The great cities of the past required large labor forces to run them; they imported slaves or attracted immigrants seeking work. So Greek and Roman houses had slave quarters, slums grew up in the shadows of factories in 19th-century industrial cities, and modernist architects of the early 20th century became preoccupied with providing inexpensive, high-density (often high-rise), repetitive worker housing. And the burgeoning, increasingly indispensable, programmed proletariats of cyberspace cities now live invisibly on disk drives.”
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: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Intelligent Agents/AI
Name of publication: City of Bits
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 6: Bit Biz
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