Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Quotes about the future

People love to make bold statements about the future. Normally they follow the following formula:

"In ___ years, most people will be _________."

Predicting the future is one of those interesting exercises where you get points for the impact of the idea - not the accuracy of the prediction. That's why I liked this post by Kevin Kelly about quotes on technology and the future.

Feel free to check them yourself, but here are my favorites. Can you tell which ones turned out to be right?

Yesterday, we changed the channel; today we hit the remote; tomorrow, we'll reprogram our agents/filters. Advertising will not go away; it will be rejuvenated.
Michael Schrage, Wired 2.02, Feb 1994, p. 73

I expect that within the next five years more than one in ten people will wear head-mounted computer displays while traveling in buses, trains, and planes.
Nicholas Negroponte, Wired 1.06, Dec 1993, p. 136

The very distinction between original and copy becomes meaningless in a digital world -- there the work exists only as a copy.
Daniel Pierehbech, Wired 2.12, Dec 1994, p. 158

The scarce resource will not be stuff, but point of view.
Paul Saffo, Wired 2.03, Mar 1994, p. 73


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