The new world of information was already affecting everyone’s lives. Yet I knew that its present impact paled in comparison to what would be coming in the next several decades. While the media continued to flash old news about information highways, electronic mail, multimedia CD-ROMS, virtual reality, even the Web, newer and more fascinating technologies were already being prototyped in our lab and others around the globe. Meanwhile, the world’s economies were getting ready to surrender a huge chunk of themselves to the activities that would stem from these technologies. And the envisioned activities, in turn, were already raising complex new social issues.
Predictor: Dertouzos, Michael L.
Prediction, in context:In his 1997 book “What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives (book),” Michael L Dertouzos recalls a scene in 1995: ”On this Tuesday [in February 1995] almost halfway through the 1990s, we at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science were still inventing exciting hardware, like bodynets that can link small computerized devices on our eyeglasses and belts with others in our cars and homes, or software that can hold a conversation with a human. But technology had grown to affect the world so profoundly, to become so intertwined with human activity, that it was no longer an isolated pursuit … Already, in two short years, the Web had shed its techie aura and become a major cultural movement involving millions of people … Clearly, the new world of information was already affecting everyone’s lives. Yet I knew that its present impact paled in comparison to what would be coming in the next several decades. While the media continued to flash old news about information highways, electronic mail, multimedia CD-ROMS, virtual reality, even the Web, newer and more fascinating technologies were already being prototyped in our lab and others around the globe. Meanwhile, the world’s economies were getting ready to surrender a huge chunk of themselves to the activities that would stem from these technologies. And the envisioned activities, in turn, were already raising complex new social issues.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Vision
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 4, 5
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne