We can expect the speed of “real time” to help us project into cyberspace some of our dearest phantasms, some our worst monsters. This power of revelation and embodiment will be felt by many to be the utmost obscenity Let’s not forget that both Hitler and Stalin are known for having banned the publication of fairy tales … Freedom of imagination is feared by most powers.
Predictor: Stenger, Nicole
Prediction, in context:In her early 1990s essay, “Mind is a Leaking Rainbow,” which was published in the collection “Cyberspace: First Steps,” Nicole Stenger, a computer animation artist and director of the Group for the Study of Virtual Systems at the University of California at Santa Cruz, writes: ”Communicating at the speed of light on the computer networks induces euphoria, boosts intuition. Interactivity with 3-D images reveals enlightening visual lapses. This is why we can expect the speed of ‘real time’ to help us project into cyberspace some of our dearest phantasms, some our worst monsters. This power of revelation and embodiment will be felt by many to be the utmost obscenity Let’s not forget that both Hitler and Stalin are known for having banned the publication of fairy tales. (Fairy tales that describe a world of desires, immorally fulfilled at the speed of light, in a setting of metamorphic imagery, absolute brilliance, space and time distortions, in cyberspace as it were.) Freedom of imagination is feared by most powers.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Censorship/Free Speech
Name of publication: Cyberspace: First Steps
Title, headline, chapter name: Mind is a Leaking Rainbow
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 57
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty