The prediction, in brief:

It may become possible for businesses and arms of the government to acquire an intimate knowledge of every citizen – what we love and hate, what compels us and what we ignore – and with it perhaps the ability to manipulate our needs and our behavior. Every choice we make could be recorded, as could every moment of consumer bliss or image consumption. We could be profiled in terrifying detail, almost casually, as a kind of side-effect of the network software. Viewed this way, the NII becomes the Panopticon triumphant.

Predictor: Maddox, Tom

Prediction, in context:

In a 1994 article for Wilson Quarterly, Tom Maddux writes:”Through the NII [National Information Infrastructure], it may become possible for businesses and arms of the government to acquire an intimate knowledge of every citizen – what we love and hate, what compels us and what we ignore – and with it perhaps the ability to manipulate our needs and our behavior. Every choice we make could be recorded, as could every moment of consumer bliss or image consumption. We could be profiled in terrifying detail, almost casually, as a kind of side-effect of the network software. Viewed this way, the NII becomes the Panopticon triumphant, to borrow Michel Foucault’s notion of a machine for constraining our desire within socially acceptable limits, on the one hand, and commercially viable ones, on the other.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues

Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance

Name of publication: The Wilson Quarterly

Title, headline, chapter name: The Cultural Consequences of the Information Superhighway

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://weblinks2.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=dbs+1+ln+en%2Dus+sid+90970082%2D4C44%2D4E9B%2DBC3F%2DCA2177A4B175%40Sessionmgr2+4051&_uh=btn+N+idb+afhish+jdb+afhjnh+op+phrase+ss+ID++WLQ+CC1F&_us=bs+JN++%22Wilson++Quarterly%22++and++DT++19940601+ds+JN++%22Wilson++Quarterly%22++and++DT++19940601+dstb+KS+fcl+Aut+ri+KAAACB1D00237018+sm+KS+81AB&fn=1&rn=5

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty