Perhaps within a decade most Americans will have an e-mail address just as most now have phone numbers. The computer will become (as it is already becoming) a democratic appliance that will increasingly resemble the kitchen stove. Almost everyone has a stove. But some of us make hamburgers, and others make fettucini. Computers are the same; they reveal differences more than they create them.
Predictor: Samuelson, Robert
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 essay for Newsweek magazine, columnist Robert Samuelson writes: ”Perhaps within a decade most Americans will have an e-mail address just as most now have phone numbers. The computer will become (as it is already becoming) a democratic appliance that will increasingly resemble the kitchen stove. Almost everyone has a stove. But some of us make hamburgers, and others make fettucini. Computers are the same; they reveal differences more than they create them. Once this becomes clear, the idea of cyber inequality will implode. Cyber inequality is the notion that computers are helping splinter America economically. They seem one explanation for the sharp increase of wage inequality … Bunk. Cyber inequality is mostly a myth. Computers do not really explain widening wage inequalities. The more important cause is a profound change in the business climate, beginning in the 1970s.”
Biography:Robert Samuelson , a regular columnist for Newsweek, also wrote for the Washington Post in the 1990s. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: February 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Newsweek
Title, headline, chapter name: The Myth of Cyber Inequality: Computers Are Not Causing Growing Wage Differences
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web16.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=dbs+0+ln+en%2Dus+sid+1CE74732%2DC742%2D4AD3%2DB343%2D16CC9B067F55%40Sessionmgr4%2DSessionmgr3+CDB2&_us=bs+Samuelson++Cyber++Inequality+cst+0%3B1+ds+Samuelson++Cyber++Inequality+dstb+KS+hd+0+hs+%2D1+or+Date+pr+255+ri+KAAACBYB00270418+sl+0+sm+KS+so+all+ss+SO+A7B1&cf=1&fn=1&rn=1
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stevens, Shawn