The really serious problems are not about computers. They are about resistance to revising concepts of childhood (including modes of parenting and schooling) shaped in a bygone epoch.
Predictor: Papert, Seymour
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article he wrote for Time magazine, Seymour Papert says: ”Worrying about bad company in cyberspace has captured first place from worrying about children becoming isolated nerds. Anxious adults fall prey to duels between cybercritics issuing dire warnings and cybertopians countering with appealingly easy technical solutions: Concerned about cyberporn and bad company? A clever chip will protect your kids. Unhappy about violence in video games? The industry has worked out a rating system. Worried about equity? Computers will be placed in every classroom and built into every TV set. But both sides fail to see that the really serious problems are not about computers. They are about resistance to revising concepts of childhood (including modes of parenting and schooling) shaped in a bygone epoch.”
Biography:Seymour Papert, a mathematician, was one of the early pioneers of Artificial Intelligence. He is internationally recognized as the seminal thinker about ways in which computers can change learning. He wrote “The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer” (1992) and “The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap” (1996). (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Relationships
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: The Parent Trap
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.papert.org/articles/parent_trap.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Ritz, Nathan M.