The prediction, in brief:

The lonely crowd’s worst fears about the electronic frontier – where citizens will be able to hook themselves up to a life-support system consisting of television, telephone and computer, and never have to leave the house in order to work, shop or even vote – were about to become reality … As Information Superhighway hysteria spread down Pennsylvania Avenue, you could almost hear humming in the air: It’s the dawning of a new era in communications law! Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in the latest policy debate! Say “goodbye” to old-fashioned representative democracy – “hello” to Virtual Government!

Predictor: Baldwin, Deborah

Prediction, in context:

In a 1994 article for Common Cause magazine, Deborah Baldwin writes: ”By the close of 1993, everything from pencils and postal carriers to Blockbuster and the Big Three networks began to look suspiciously out of date … The lonely crowd’s worst fears about the electronic frontier – where citizens will be able to hook themselves up to a life-support system consisting of television, telephone and computer, and never have to leave the house in order to work, shop or even vote – were about to become reality … As Information Superhighway hysteria spread down Pennsylvania Avenue, you could almost hear humming in the air: It’s the dawning of a new era in communications law! Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in the latest policy debate! Say ‘goodbye’ to old-fashioned representative democracy – ‘hello’ to Virtual Government! … The revolution in telecommunications is all new and it’s all up for grabs.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics

Subtopic: Democracy

Name of publication: Common Cause Magazine

Title, headline, chapter name: If This is the Information Superhighway, Where Are the Rest Stops?

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=6bb2902898a52d79b267d142a1ee1117&_docnum=4&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlzV&_md5=1deffb71b371e0594dffd3c2bd0c9685

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney