The Internet can be seen as an emergent organism. It wasn’t engineered; it has grown … Communication is taking place outside of the human mind. There is positive feedback from within the network. The technology starts to change as a result of its own processes. Communication takes place between computers that is meaningful to them. Just think, you’ll be able to say to your grandchildren, “I was there when all computers couldn’t talk to each other.” But what is more likely: you’ll be explaining your time to an applet that your grandchildren created to deal with their grandparents.
Predictor: Hillis, W. Daniel
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Sun World, a publication of Sun Microsystems, Erica Liederman quotes Danny Hillis, an adjunct professor at MIT and inventor of massively parallel supercomputing, regarding Java. Hillis says:”In 1980, there were 100 hosts on the Internet. In 1995, there are 10 million. Ten years ago, the phonebook for the entire ARPANet was one inch thick … The Internet can be seen as an emergent organism. It wasn’t engineered; it has grown. Nobody understands in detail ‘how’ it works. Java allows the network to have a ‘mind.’ This is revolutionary. Communication is taking place outside of the human mind. There is positive feedback from within the network. The technology starts to change as a result of its own processes. Communication takes place between computers that is meaningful to them. Just think, you’ll be able to say to your grandchildren, ‘I was there when all computers couldn’t talk to each other.’ But what is more likely: you’ll be explaining your time to an applet that your grandchildren created to deal with their grandparents.”
Biography:W. Daniel Hillis, vice president of research and development at the Walt Disney Company, an inventor of massively parallel computing, was also founder and chief scientist of Thinking Machines Corporation. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Sun World
Title, headline, chapter name: Java Day: You Are There
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-11-1995/swol-11-java.event.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney