People may disperse themselves further from population concentrations and rely even more heavily on telecommunications to meet their work and social needs. One possible outcome of these choices is the re-habituation of people to living in very small local ways, with only occasional forays into urban exotica. The cruel irony of a heavily gridded but barriered travel and telecommunications infrastructure is the possibility of more and more persons being driven into solo, individual spaces rather than into communities of difference and exposure.
Predictor: Acker, Stephen R.
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article from the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Stephen R. Acker of the Communication Department/Center for the Advanced Study of Telecommunications at The Ohio State University discusses collaboration in a virtual world. He writes: ÒWhat isn’t clear is how a fully developed NII will influence human mobility. While the highway system is not an all encompassing metaphor for the NII, the existence of the NII is very likely to influence in a concrete way the highway system and the physical transport of people. As a challenge to the status quo, Arcosanti-like environments are proposed in which people live and work very close together and share expansive greenbelts around their cities … Far more dominant are choices that preserve the status quo. For example, one reason people become more conversant with telecommunications is the convenience offered by home- and satellite-based working relationships. Alternately, people may disperse themselves further from population concentrations and rely even more heavily on telecommunications to meet their work and social needs. One possible outcome of these choices is the re-habituation of people to living in very small local ways, with only occasional forays into urban exotica. The cruel irony of a heavily gridded but barriered travel and telecommunications infrastructure is the possibility of more and more persons being driven into solo, individual spaces rather than into communities of difference and exposure.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Relationships
Name of publication: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Title, headline, chapter name: Space, Collaboration, and the Credible City: Academic Work in the Virtual University
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue1/acker/ACKTEXT.HTM
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne