One principal element must be openness … In the Net of tomorrow, the light of criticism must shine everywhere, or secrets which lay hidden will fester into new crises, new weapons, new errors. In an information society, secrecy is the equivalent of cancer.
Predictor: Brin, David
Prediction, in context:In his speech “Gaia, Freedom, and Human Nature Ð Some Ironies on the Way to Creating the Network of the Future,” carried in the publication of presentations made at the 1992 Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) conference in Chicago, David Brin writes: ”The future of the information network [is evolving] at conferences such as this one. Like the sun, the earth, and the human body, in the long run, stability is achieved not by laws or rules, but through self-regulating, adaptive systems that allow large forces to balance each other out. In this case, in the World Information Net, this balance will be driven by the power of ten billion voices, ten trillion ideas. Such a system cannot be designed in detail, but the right mix of basic elements can be planned in advance, to keep it healthy so that this maelstrom of ideas and myths will be fecund in its creation of vast quantities of metaphors, but also sane enough to ultimately reject bad notions, in a fair market, clearing the way for new ones to take their place. One principal element must be openness. In the human body, nutrients must flow, and white blood cells have to reach their targets. In the Net of tomorrow, the light of criticism must shine everywhere, or secrets which lay hidden will fester into new crises, new weapons, new errors. In an information society, secrecy is the equivalent of cancer.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Censorship/Free Speech
Name of publication: Thinking Robots, An Aware Internet, and Cyberpunk Librarians.
Title, headline, chapter name: Gaia, Freedom, and Human Nature Ð Some Ironies on the Way to Creating the Network of the Future
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 40, 41
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty