As a device shrinking to pocket size, the telephone is subsuming the rest of our technological baggage – the fax machine, the pager, the clock, the compass, the stock ticker, and the television. A sign of the telephone’s power: It is pressing the computer into service as its accessory, not the other way round … The telephone is not just a device. It is a network … As the network spreads, it is fostering both the universality and the individuality of human discourse. The Net itself, the world’s fastest-spreading communications medium, is the telephone network in its most liberating, unruly, and fertile new guise. Thus Bell’s child is freeing our understanding of the possibilities that lie in ancient words: neighborhood and meeting and information and news.
Predictor: Gleick, James
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Jeff Greenwald edited together a story on the “Seven Techno-Wonders of the World” as compiled by requesting input from 100 individuals “who have been, in our estimation, conspicuous beacons on the broad frontier of high technology.” In the top seven listed (the communications network, micromanufacturing, digital astronomy, senior citizens, the Human Genome Project, neuromantic drugs and immersive technology), two on the list contained predictive statements. Folllowing is one submitted by James Gleick, founder of an Internet gateway called the Pipeline: ”The telephone – both the instrument and its network – is on the march again. As a device shrinking to pocket size, the telephone is subsuming the rest of our technological baggage – the fax machine, the pager, the clock, the compass, the stock ticker, and the television. A sign of the telephone’s power: It is pressing the computer into service as its accessory, not the other way round. We know now that the telephone is not just a device. It is a network – it is the network, copper or fiber or wireless – sprouting terminals that may just as well be workstations as headsets or Princesses. As the network spreads, it is fostering both the universality and the individuality of human discourse. The Net itself, the world’s fastest-spreading communications medium, is the telephone network in its most liberating, unruly, and fertile new guise. Thus Bell’s child is freeing our understanding of the possibilities that lie in ancient words: neighborhood and meeting and information and news. It is global; it is democratic; it is the central agent of change in our sense of community. It is how, and why, we are wired.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Wired Wonders: Rhodes Had its Colossus. We Have Our Old Folks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.06/wired.wonders_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney