The metaphor of the need for “Highways of the Mind” across this land is very deceptive. It really could turn out to mean “Super Toll Roads between Castles.” That is not my vision of a Network Nation.
Predictor: Hughes, Dave
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for The Whole Earth Review, a quarterly magazine of access to tools and ideas, Roger Karraker discusses the Internet quoting Dave Hughes, a Colorado telecommunications pioneer. Karraker writes: ”Hughes wants either to flatten NREN’s three tiers of service into a single tier, or have guarantees of affordable access and compatible protocols between the three tiers to and from every educational/political subdivision in America. From observing online behavior nationally for the past 11 years, he thinks talent will find its own level on the network, and that those with neither the talent or motivation will be satisfied with local bulletin-boards and video games. He believes all schools in the country should have the right of access under the law, including either affordable rates, or appropriate subsidies down to the local level. ‘The implicit assumptions behind the NREN proposal,’ Hughes says, ‘are that it will only link large research (which also may be ‘educational’ in the sense of higher education) institutions. As currently conceived NREN will NOT extend to the 16,000 K-12 school districts in America, much less foster the vision of a nation of people learning all their lives by mixing institutional (edifice-centered) education and training, and learning, formally and informally, from home, library, place of business or study. So the metaphor of the need for ‘Highways of the Mind’ across this land is very deceptive. It really could turn out to mean ‘Super Toll Roads between Castles.’ That is not my vision of a Network Nation.'”
Biography:Dave Hughes created the first free, modem dial-up, electronic democracy bulletin-board system in the world. It soon challenged and altered the way local city-wide politics were conducted. It was colorfully named “Roger’s Bar.” Within five years the world’s press had beaten a path to Hughes’ home to report on, and encourage others to adopt an entirely new model of “electronic democracy” Ð a model that could be adopted in any small town in America. Wired magazine said he was the best-known personality on the Internet in 1993. Microtimes Magazine named Hughes one of the 100 most influential individuals in the Computer Age six times between 1990 and 1996. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Whole Earth Revue
Title, headline, chapter name: Highways of the Mind or Toll Roads Between Information Castles?
Quote Type: Partial 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