The prediction, in brief:

E-mail may substitute for the post office and the word processor for the typewriter (as the typewriter did for the pen) but only to some degree and in the end not at all … Electronic communication machines reconfigure space and time coordinates, restructure the relation of the body and mind to the practice (of writing), redesign relations of inside and outside through what I call the wrappings of language. In these ways the conditions of culture are shifted.

Predictor: Poster, Mark

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 interview with a reporter from the online journal Seulemonde, Mark Poster, a member of the humanities faculty at the University of California at Irvine and author of “The Second Media Age,” says:”My view is that communications machines alter the conditions of culture so that ‘modern’ utilitarian culture is eroded and displaced. E-mail may substitute for the post office and the word processor for the typewriter (as the typewriter did for the pen) but only to some degree and in the end not at all (if this makes any sense). Electronic communication machines reconfigure space and time coordinates, restructure the relation of the body and mind to the practice (of writing), redesign relations of inside and outside through what I call the wrappings of language. In these ways the conditions of culture are shifted. To maintain a subject in a utilitarian mode within discursive practices structured by electronic communication devices becomes more and more difficult. Every statement of cultural criticism that bemoans the lack of morality, the decline of cognitive skills and so forth may be understood as a misrecognition of the effects of new cultural formations.”

Biography:

Mark Poster wrote the paper “Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere” in 1995 while teaching at the University of California, Irvine. He also wrote about technology for Wired magazine. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Communication

Subtopic: E-mail

Name of publication: Seulemonde

Title, headline, chapter name: Mark Poster Interview

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.cas.usf.edu/journal/poster/mposter.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Schmidt, Nicholas