Bad things are naturally going to happen here first, because we’re the people who are inventing almost all the possibilities. But I also feel that it’s not very likely that bad things will reach that extremity of awfulness here. It’s quite possible that American computer police will make some awful mistakes, but I can almost guarantee that other people’s police will make worse mistakes by an order of magnitude.
Predictor: Sterling, Bruce
Prediction, in context:In May 1995, Wired magazine ran an article that was excerpted from a transcript of a speech Bruce Sterling delivered at the High Technology Crime Investigation Association conference in November 1994. Sterling says: ”Since I’m a science fiction writer, I like to speculate about the future. American computer police are going to have a hard row to hoe, because they are almost always going to be the first in the world to catch hell from these issues. Certain bad things are naturally going to happen here first, because we’re the people who are inventing almost all the possibilities. But I also feel that it’s not very likely that bad things will reach that extremity of awfulness here. It’s quite possible that American computer police will make some awful mistakes, but I can almost guarantee that other people’s police will make worse mistakes by an order of magnitude.”
Biography:Bruce Sterling, a writer, consultant and science fiction enthusiast, wrote or co-wrote “Schismatrix,” “The Hacker Crackdown” and “The Difference Engine” and edited “Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.” In the 1990s, he wrote tech articles for Fortune, Harper’s, Details, Whole Earth Review and Wired, where he was a contributing writer from its founding. He published the nonfiction book “Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years” in 2002. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: November 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Jurisdiction/Control
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Good Cop, Bad Hacker: Bruce Sterling has a ‘Frank Chat’ with Some Cops
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/sterling_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney