If Singapore chooses to stay with “business as usual,” it may never realize its goal of becoming an information technology superpower … If, however, Singapore chooses to have a truly open data highway, it will be in for a very bumpy ride indeed … With the NII looming on the horizon, the question becomes, how ya’ gonna keep ’em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree? And cyberspace has lots of provocative “Parees.”
Predictor: Sandfort, Sandy
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Sandy Sandfort covers the possibilities the Internet brings to the nation of Singapore. Sandfort writes: ”Singapore has the choice of either creating a truly open international data highway, or perpetuating the narrow, censored flow of information that has served it for nearly 30 years. Once the NII throws open the ideological windows, Singapore’s peculiar brand of control may well not survive. If Singapore chooses to stay with ‘business as usual,’ it may never realize its goal of becoming an information technology superpower. A compromised NII will be relegated to the technological backwaters by freer, more dynamic information infrastructures in North America, Europe, and elsewhere in Asia. If this happens, Singapore will become just another ‘also ran’ on the scene. If, however, Singapore chooses to have a truly open data highway, it will be in for a very bumpy ride indeed. By keeping Singaporeans strictly regimented and in intellectual quarantine, the government has been able to avoid many social problems endemic among other modern industrial nations. With the NII looming on the horizon, the question becomes, how ya’ gonna keep ’em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree? And cyberspace has lots of provocative ‘Parees.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Third-World Nations
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: The Intelligent Island: We Asked Sandy Sandfort to Tell Us Whether Technology Will Ultimately Liberate the Intelligent Island
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/sandfort_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney