In the world of the future people will use low-cost Radio Shack equipment to spy on themselves to find out who they are.
Predictor: Hughes, Eric
Prediction, in context:In a 1992 article for The Boston Globe, Michael Blowen reports on a tongue-in-cheek Internet prediction from Eric Hughes. Blowen writes: ”Eric Hughes, a Watertown-based artist and the publisher of ‘Artificial Stupidity World’ and creator/performer of ‘A Prairie Home Computer,’ is clearly a man of the ’90s. Among his observations: ‘In the world of the future people will use low-cost Radio Shack equipment to spy on themselves to find out who they are.’ Hughes is now planning the ‘Parade of the Tall Buildings Year 2000 Celebration.’ As John Rennie, editor of Scientific American, says of Hughes’ contribution to contemporary science: ‘It’s good to know Hughes will always be able to provide the world with artificial stupidity in the unlikely event that it ever runs out of the real thing.'”
Biography:Eric Hughes co-founded the Cypherpunks with John Gilmore and Tim May. This group included cryptographers, privacy advocates and digital anarchists. They were known for a densely written e-mail list generating megabytes of issue-oriented scientific discussion weekly. He was the author of the Cypherpunk Manifesto. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 6, 1992
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Boston Globe
Title, headline, chapter name: Stupid Building Tricks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=2754596af37439cafca01eb2f4fbe91d&_docnum=8&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlzV&_md5=50ea823e1cfb788771ce340b5d9adb1c
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Johnson, Kathleen