This is meant to be a serious book, although 10 years from now it may not appear that way. What I’ve said that turned out to be all right will be considered obvious and what was wrong will be humorous. I believe the course of the creation of the highway will mirror, in many ways, the history of the personal-computer industry É Everyone will be touched by the information highway, and everyone ought to be able to understand its implications.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”We’ve all smiled at predictions from the past that look silly today É History is full of now ironic examples Ð the Oxford professor who in 1878 dismissed the electric light as a gimmick; the commissioner of U.S. patents who in 1899 asked that his office be abolished because ‘everything that can be invented has been invented.’ This is meant to be a serious book, although 10 years from now it may not appear that way. What I’ve said that turned out to be all right will be considered obvious and what was wrong will be humorous. I believe the course of the creation of the highway will mirror, in many ways, the history of the personal-computer industry É Everyone will be touched by the information highway, and everyone ought to be able to understand its implications.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Foreword
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page XIII
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney