Electronic media decompose holistic experience into analytically distinct sensory dimensions and then transmit the latter. At the receiving end, people can resynthesize the resulting parts into a coherent experience, but the new whole is invariably different and, in some fundamental sense, less than the original.
Predictor: Sclove, Richard
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Democracy and Technology,” Richard Sclove writes: ”Electronic communication filters filters out and alters much of the nuance, warmth, contextuality, and so on that seem important to fully human, morally engaged interaction … Even hypothetical new media (e.g., advanced ‘virtual realities’), conveying a dimensionally richer sensory display, are unlikely to prove fully satisfactory substitutes for face-to-face interaction. Electronic media decompose holistic experience into analytically distinct sensory dimensions and then transmit the latter. At the receiving end, people can resynthesize the resulting parts into a coherent experience, but the new whole is invariably different and, in some fundamental sense, less than the original.”
Biography:Richard Sclove was founder and an advisory board member of The Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization in Amherst, Mass., dedicated to making research, science and technology responsive to social and environmental concerns. He is also the author of the book “Democracy and Technology” (1995). (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Relationships
Name of publication: Democracy and Technology
Title, headline, chapter name: Cybersobriety
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 79
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Taylor, Kellen L.