When I look at the Internet, I see something astounding and delightful. It’s as if some grim fallout shelter had burst open and a full-scale Mardi Gras parade had come out. I take such enormous pleasure in this that it’s hard to remain properly skeptical.
Predictor: Sterling, Bruce
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Time magazine, Philip Elmer-DeWitt talks with author and cyberspace commentator Bruce Sterling. Elmer-DeWitt writes: ”‘When I look at the Internet,’ says Bruce Sterling, another science-fiction writer and a great champion of cyberspace, ‘I see something astounding and delightful. It’s as if some grim fallout shelter had burst open and a full-scale Mardi Gras parade had come out. I take such enormous pleasure in this that it’s hard to remain properly skeptical.’ There is no guarantee, however, that cyberspace will always look like this. The Internet is changing rapidly.”
Biography:Bruce Sterling, a writer, consultant and science fiction enthusiast, wrote or co-wrote “Schismatrix,” “The Hacker Crackdown” and “The Difference Engine” and edited “Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.” In the 1990s, he wrote tech articles for Fortune, Harper’s, Details, Whole Earth Review and Wired, where he was a contributing writer from its founding. He published the nonfiction book “Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years” in 2002. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: Welcome to Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Vol. 145, Issue 12, Page 4 ISSN: 0040781X
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Uhlfelder, Evelyn C.