Folks, I’m not holding my breath. The information superhighway may or may not become a truly transforming technology – the likes of the railroad, car or phone. But if it does, the event is many years, and perhaps decades, away.
Predictor: Samuelson, Robert
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 essay for Newsweek magazine, columnist Robert Samuelson writes: ”I admit to being baffled by the ‘information superhighway.’ We are all (it seems) about to be swept into a new world of interactive, multimedia services that will arrive over the superhighway and, somehow, revolutionize our lives. Folks, I’m not holding my breath. The information superhighway may or may not become a truly transforming technology – the likes of the railroad, car or phone. But if it does, the event is many years, and perhaps decades, away. What inspires the hoopla is the fascination with the new and the spectacle of massive companies (Bell Atlantic, Time Warner, Viacom) frantically manuevering, through mergers and joint ventures, to prepare for a future they only dimly perceive. We in the press contribute to the illusion because our technology writers (bless them) are wild enthusiasts whose excursions into ‘cyberspace’ exaggerate its importance. To take one example: Computer online services are booming, but the total subscribers of the top four services (about 3 million) roughly equal Newsweek’s circulation (3.3 million).”
Biography:Robert Samuelson , a regular columnist for Newsweek, also wrote for the Washington Post in the 1990s. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: December 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Newsweek
Title, headline, chapter name: Lost On The Information Superhighway: It’s a Lot of Hoopla. No One Yet Knows Where It’s Going
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web16.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=dbs+0+ln+en%2Dus+sid+1CE74732%2DC742%2D4AD3%2DB343%2D16CC9B067F55%40Sessionmgr4%2DSessionmgr3+CDB2&_us=bs+Samuelson++Information++Superhighway+cst+0%3B1+ds+Samuelson++Information++Superhighway+dstb+KS+hd+0+hs+%2D1+or+Date+pr+255+ri+KAAACBYB00269722+sl+0+sm+KS+so+all+ss+SO+11F6&fn=1&rn=1
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stevens, Shawn