Encryption wins because it is the necessary counterforce to the Net’s runaway tendency to link. Left to itself, the Net will connect everyone to everyone, everything to everything. The Net says, “Just connect.” The cipher, in contrast, says, “Disconnect.” Without some force of disconnection, the world would freeze up in an overloaded tangle of unprivate connections and unfiltered information.
Predictor: Kelly, Kevin
Prediction, in context:In his 1994 book “Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World,” Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired magazine, writes: ”Encryption wins because it is the necessary counterforce to the Net’s runaway tendency to link. Left to itself, the Net will connect everyone to everyone, everything to everything. The Net says, ‘Just connect.’ The cipher, in contrast, says, ‘Disconnect.’ Without some force of disconnection, the world would freeze up in an overloaded tangle of unprivate connections and unfiltered information.”
Biography:Kevin Kelly was the author of the book “Out of Control” and the first executive editor of the highly influential Wired magazine. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
Title, headline, chapter name: E-Money
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 228
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney