The prediction, in brief:

We will have peace of mind, surrounded by more soil than concrete. We can grow our food, we can revel in local art. At the same time, we can virtually attend any event, anywhere in the world. When we can travel by computer, we won’t need many cars and highways and airplanes and runways. We’ll make beautiful our communities, with planting and projects, instead of traveling to see those things in other places.

Predictor: Hall, Justin Allyn

Prediction, in context:

In this 1995 online essay, Justin Hall makes the statement:”[With the proliferation of Internet use] the elements of culture that cannot be replicated on a computer, the distinctly human analog media could be enacted on a local scale, by people freed to pursue the arts. If folks don’t have to commute to slave away at jobs they hate [because of telecommuting], there’ll be more sculpture, more gardens, more plays, more fairs, more music, more dancing, more home cooking. When culture, work and humanity can be found in part through a computer, the home and the neighborhood will come into focus as the center of life. No more midmorning headlight caterpillar crawl between suburbs and cities, we can live in houses in the country with big gardens and still enjoy the connectedness of living in a city. All the more, in fact, since we will have peace of mind, surrounded by more soil than concrete. We can grow our food, we can revel in local art. At the same time, we can virtually attend any event, anywhere in the world. When we can travel by computer, we won’t need many cars and highways and airplanes and runways. We’ll make beautiful our communities, with planting and projects, instead of traveling to see those things in other places.”

Biography:

Justin Hall worked briefly at Wired in 1994, during a sabbatical from his college days at Swarthmore. He started his own irreverent e-zine, covering diverse topics and providing links all over the Web. He later worked for ZDTV and Games.com and as a freelance journalist. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)

Date of prediction: July 21, 1995

Topic of prediction: Economic structures

Subtopic: Telecommuting

Name of publication: Links.net

Title, headline, chapter name: Computopia: Sharing Stories Humanizes Computer Connections

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.links.net/dox/tech/computopia.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Goodrich, Barbara J.