FBI people … your idea of Digital Telephony is a scarcely mitigated disaster … you’re going to be filling out your paperwork in quintuplicate to get a tap, just like you always do … In the meantime, you will have armed the enemies of the United States around the world with a terrible weapon … raw and tyrannical Digital Telephony. You’re gonna be using it to round up wise guys in street gangs, and people like Saddam Hussein are gonna be using it to round up democratic activists …You’re going to strengthen the hand of despotism around the world, and then you’re going to have to deal with the hordes of state-supported truck bombers these rogue governments are sending our way after annihilating their own internal opposition by using your tools.
Predictor: Sterling, Bruce
Prediction, in context:A 1994 article in Wired magazine contains the body of Bruce Sterling’s concluding speech at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference IV in Chicago, March 26, 1994. Sterling says: ”FBI people, I think your idea of Digital Telephony is a scarcely mitigated disaster, and I’ll tell you why: because you’re going to be filling out your paperwork in quintuplicate to get a tap, just like you always do, because you don’t have your own pet court like the NSA does. And for you, it probably is going to seem pretty much like the status quo. But in the meantime, you will have armed the enemies of the United States around the world with a terrible weapon. Not your court-ordered, civilized Digital Telephony – their raw and tyrannical Digital Telephony. You’re gonna be using it to round up wise guys in street gangs, and people like Saddam Hussein are gonna be using it to round up democratic activists and national minorities. You’re going to strengthen the hand of despotism around the world, and then you’re going to have to deal with the hordes of state-supported truck bombers these rogue governments are sending our way after annihilating their own internal opposition by using your tools. You want us to put an ax in your hand and you’re promising to hit us with only the flat side of it. But the Chinese don’t see it that way; they’re already licensing fax machines and they’re gonna need a lot of new hardware to gear up for Tiananmen II.”
Biography:Bruce Sterling, a writer, consultant and science fiction enthusiast, wrote or co-wrote “Schismatrix,” “The Hacker Crackdown” and “The Difference Engine” and edited “Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.” In the 1990s, he wrote tech articles for Fortune, Harper’s, Details, Whole Earth Review and Wired, where he was a contributing writer from its founding. He published the nonfiction book “Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years” in 2002. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: March 26, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Pornography
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: So, People, We Have a Fight on Our Hands
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.07/sterling.cfp_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney