[The Internet culture of the early ’90s is] a perfect Marxist state, where almost nobody does any business. But at some point that will have to change.
Predictor: Farber, David J.
Prediction, in context:A 1993 article for Time magazine paints a general picture of the Internet, quoting David Farber, a professor of information science at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the network’s original architects. It says: ”As traffic swells, the Internet is beginning to suffer the problems of any heavily traveled highway, including vandalism, break-ins and traffic jams. ‘It’s like an amusement park that’s so successful that there are long waits for the most popular rides,’ says David Farber … The Internet, however, will have to go through some radical changes before it can join the world of commerce. Subsidized for so long by the Federal Government, its culture is not geared to normal business activities. It does not take kindly to unsolicited advertisements; use electronic mail to promote your product and you are likely to be inundated with hate mail directed not only at you personally but also at your supervisor, your suppliers and your customers as well. ‘It’s a perfect Marxist state, where almost nobody does any business,’ says Farber. ‘But at some point that will have to change.'”
Biography:David Farber was the recipient of the 1995 ACM Sigcomm Award for lifelong contributions to the computer communications field. He has worked at the University of Pennsylvania, managing research in high-speed networking. In 2000, he served as chief technologist at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. He also directed the Center for Communications and Information Sciences and Policy. In 1997, Upside magazine named him one of its Elite 100 visionaries of high-tech. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: First Nation in Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Vol. 142, Issue 24, Page 62 ISSN: 0040781X
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney