I don’t want to see my friends over a real-time video system, I want to be with them personally. Virtual sex? How repugnant – even the most intimate of human experiences now mediated through a machine. Not for me, thanks. The ultimate in alienation.
Predictor: WELL participant
Prediction, in context:In her 1995 book “Life on the Screen,” Sherry Turkle – an accomplished social psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist from MIT whose studies centered around people and computers for decades – quotes a critical comment from a discussion group participant on The WELL in her Endnotes. She quotes directly: ”Nor do I think that this medium, while it is great as a ‘supplement’ to f2f [face-to-face] interactions, would be a very healthy, or emotionally satisfying way to conduct ‘most’ of our interactions – which seems to be a goal of at least some of the more rabid VR [virtual reality] advocates. I mean, I don’t want to see my friends over a real-time video system, I want to be with them personally. Virtual sex? How repugnant – even the most intimate of human experiences now mediated through a machine. Not for me, thanks. The ultimate in alienation.”
Date of prediction: May 29, 1993
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Human-Machine Interaction
Name of publication: Life on the Screen (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Endnotes
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 316
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney