[Net advertisers are] inventing the equivalent of the sandwich board but it’s going to get much more intense. I got tired of all that talk about the information highway. It reminds me of a shopping mall, and malls have something to do with privatization of public space.
Predictor: Gibson, William
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article in the Canadian magazine Maclean’s, novelist William Gibson is quoted by an unknown author. The article says: ”Cyberculture could be seen as a ’90s upgrade of ’60s psychedelia – mind-expansion by other means. ‘It’s historically safe,’ Gibson acknowledges, ‘to say that personal computers were invented by acidheads – acid-eating, garage-living hippies in California. I’m sorry, but it’s true.’ Just as the drug culture was colonized, commercialized – and diverted to dangerous new tastes such as crank cocaine – cyberspace is rapidly losing its innocence. ‘The thing I’ve always admired about the Internet is that it is not a corporate entity,’ says Gibson. ‘But corporations are free to come and go in there as well as individuals.’ As advertising invades the Net, his own movie is right in there with the ‘Johnny Mnemonic Scavenger Hunt,’ a contest sponsored by Tri-Star’s parent Sony, on the World Wide Web. Net advertisers are ‘inventing the equivalent of the sandwich board,’ Gibson adds, ‘but it’s going to get much more intense. I got tired of all that talk about the information highway. It reminds me of a shopping mall, and malls have something to do with privatization of public space.'”
Biography:William Gibson published the influential book “Neuromancer,” in which he coined the term “cyberspace,” in 1984. Through the early 1990s, he was asked to comment regularly on the coming age of the Internet despite the fact that he claimed to use it rarely, if ever. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: E-commerce
Name of publication: Maclean's
Title, headline, chapter name: Mind Games with William Gibson
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=99b126a4b6ce88bec5955d24faf453a8
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Falcone, Peter P.