A quiet but crucial debate now under way in Congress, in major corporate boardrooms, and in universities, has the potential to shape America in the 21st century and beyond … Vast data highways, capable of sending entire libraries coast-to-coast in a few seconds or sending crucial CAT scans from a remote village to urban specialists, could be linked in a vast network of “highways of the mind.”
Predictor: Karraker, Roger
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for The Whole Earth Review, a quarterly magazine of access to tools and ideas, Roger Karraker writes about the network: ”A quiet but crucial debate now under way in Congress, in major corporate boardrooms, and in universities, has the potential to shape America in the 21st century and beyond. The outcome may determine where you live, how well your children are educated, who will blossom and who will wither in a society where national competitiveness and personal prosperity will likely depend on access to information. The battle is about who will build, own, use and pay for the high-speed data highways of the future and whether their content will be censored. These vast data highways, capable of sending entire libraries coast-to-coast in a few seconds or sending crucial CAT scans from a remote village to urban specialists, could be linked in a vast network of ‘highways of the mind.’ The backbone of these communications networks will be built of fiber-optics, hair-thick strands of glass, transmitting digital pulses thousands of times faster than ever before. In addition to their speed, fiberoptics bring with them an environmental bonus: fiberoptics are made of silicon, the earth’s most common element and the growing use of optical fibers will mean much less demand for traditional cables composed of copper, an element whose fabrication causes much environmental damage.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Whole Earth Revue
Title, headline, chapter name: Highways of the Mind or Toll Roads Between Information Castles?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Criticisms/hiways_of_mind.article
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stotler, Larry