If you can’t control predation and disruption, the community can’t survive … The rule of law has been the primary way: the self-governing capability to set rules. Your bias is always first in favor of freedom, and second focused fairly narrowly on the suppression of disorder rather than the establishment of order – a very important distinction.
Predictor: Gingrich, Newt
Prediction, in context:For a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Esther Dyson interviews U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at his House office about the future of the Internet. Dyson quotes Gingrich saying: ”Two things, I suspect, are happening with the Net. One is that as you get bigger you have problems of sheer mass. Things that were easy when you were a village become harder when you’re a metropolis. Second, whereas early on you have mostly playful and well-meaning people, you slowly acquire a group of predators and people who are psychologically unstable. Even very tiny numbers, as a percentage, can be totally destructive unless you find ways of governing them. Part of my concern comes from this severe sense that if you can’t control predation and disruption, the community can’t survive … The rule of law has been the primary way: the self-governing capability to set rules. Your bias is always first in favor of freedom, and second focused fairly narrowly on the suppression of disorder rather than the establishment of order – a very important distinction.”
Biography:Newt Gingrich was a U.S. Congressman and the Speaker of the House of Representatives who was known to be so tech-savvy that Wired magazine ran stories on his tech policy positions. He opposed Senator Exon’s controversial Communications Decency Act. (Legislator/Politician/Lawyer.)
Date of prediction: May 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Friend or Foe: Newt Gingrich Talks the Talk About Being a Revolutionary. And He Walks the Walk by Ramming Through the Most Radical Political Agenda Since the New Deal. So Why Does He Still Leave Us Feeling Uncomfortable?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.08/newt_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney