The document contains predictions from various time periods about how new technologies will transform society. It quotes thinkers saying motion pictures in the 1910s, cable TV in the 1950s, personal computers in 1981, and the radio in the 1920s would revolutionize education. The airplane, telephone, internet, and one laptop per child are also discussed in the context of their predicted societal and democratic impacts.

1. My Little Pony or Porn Star?

2. My Little Pony or Porn Star?

3. Books will soon be obsolete in the schools.
Scholars will soon be instructed through the
eye. It is possible to touch every branch of
human knowledge with [this technology].

4. Books will soon be obsolete in the schools.
Scholars will soon be instructed through the
eye. It is possible to touch every branch of
human knowledge with [this technology].
– Thomas Edison (quoted by Larry
Cuban, Teachers and Machines)
Motion Pictures
1910s

5. [This] had the potential to connect people like
no other technology. It would bring about
ubiquitous two-way communication, and it
would likely usher in a Wired Society governed
by Electronic Democracy.

6. [This] had the potential to connect people like
no other technology. It would bring about
ubiquitous two-way communication, and it
would likely usher in a Wired Society governed
by Electronic Democracy.
– Vincent Mosco, The Digital Sublime, 1
Cable Television
1950s

7. [This technology] might have more
fundamental effects on intellectual
development than did other new
technologies, including even printing.

8. [This technology] might have more
fundamental effects on intellectual
development than did other new
technologies, including even printing.
– Seymour Papert, Mindstorms, 20-21
Personal
Computers
1981

9. [This technology] was going to provide culture and
education to the masses, eliminate politicians' ability
to incite passions in a mob, bring people closer to
government proceedings, and produce a national
culture that would transcend regional and local
jealousies.

10. [This technology] was going to provide culture and
education to the masses, eliminate politicians' ability
to incite passions in a mob, bring people closer to
government proceedings, and produce a national
culture that would transcend regional and local
jealousies.
– Susan Douglas, Listening In, 20
The Radio
1920s

11. I believe that [this technology] will enable us to so
modify the learning environment outside the
classrooms that much if not all the knowledge
schools presently try to teach with such pain and
expense and such limited success will be learned, as
the child learns to talk, painlessly, successfully, and
without organized instruction.

12. I believe that [this technology] will enable us to so
modify the learning environment outside the
classrooms that much if not all the knowledge
schools presently try to teach with such pain and
expense and such limited success will be learned, as
the child learns to talk, painlessly, successfully, and
without organized instruction.
– Seymour Papert, Mindstorms, 8-9
Personal
Computers
1981

13. [This technology] will diminish greatly the
frequency of wars and to substitute some
more rational methods of settling
international misunderstandings.
It would ultimately make wars impossible.

14. [This technology] will diminish greatly the
frequency of wars and to substitute some
more rational methods of settling
international misunderstandings.
– Octave Chanute (quoted by Graham Rayman)
It would ultimately make wars impossible.
– Orville Wright (quoted by Graham Rayman)
The Airplane
Early 1900s

15. [This technology] is a force of democracy,
because it permits citizens to communicate, to
collaborate, and even to conspire uncontrolled
by a central authority.

16. [This technology] is a force of democracy,
because it permits citizens to communicate, to
collaborate, and even to conspire uncontrolled
by a central authority.
– Claude Fischer, America Calling, 24
The Telephone
Early 1900s

17. Amateur enthusiasts and educators pioneered [this
technology], communicating over vast distances without
political or economic controls. Emboldened by their new
invention, many of these people also felt the allure of
virtual community and popular power. How could any
material force get in the way?

18. Amateur enthusiasts and educators pioneered [this
technology], communicating over vast distances without
political or economic controls. Emboldened by their new
invention, many of these people also felt the allure of
virtual community and popular power. How could any
material force get in the way?
– Vincent Mosco, The Digital Sublime, 27
The Radio
1920s

19. I declare the global social space we are building to be
naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to
impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor
do you possess any methods of enforcement we
have true reason to fear.

20. I declare the global social space we are building to be
naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to
impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor
do you possess any methods of enforcement we
have true reason to fear.
– John Perry Barlow, “A Declaration of
the Independence of Cyberspace”
The Internet
1996

21. For me the great hope is now that [this technology] is
coming out, people who normally wouldn't make [this
content] are going to be making [it]. And that one day a
little fat girl in Ohio is going be the new Mozart.

22. For me the great hope is now that [this technology] is
coming out, people who normally wouldn't make [this
content] are going to be making [it]. And that one day a
little fat girl in Ohio is going be the new Mozart.
– Francis Ford Coppola (quoted by Henry Jenkins)
8mm Video
Recorders,
Movies
1970s

23. [This technology] will reorganize cities and
make cars not only be undesirable, but
unnecessary. … You won't have to convince
them to architect cities around it; it'll just
happen.

24. [This technology] will reorganize cities and
make cars not only be undesirable, but
unnecessary. … You won't have to convince
them to architect cities around it; it'll just
happen.
– Dean Kamen, Time Magazine
Segway
2001

25. If I really had to look at how to eliminate
poverty, create peace, and work on the
environment, I can't think of a better
way to do it.

26. If I really had to look at how to eliminate
poverty, create peace, and work on the
environment, I can't think of a better
way to do it.
– Nicholas Negroponte
One Laptop
Per Child
2006

28. [This technology] would revitalize
communities, enrich schools, end poverty,
eliminate the need for everything from banks
to shopping malls, and reduce dependence on
the automobile. ... In short, [it] would
transform the world.

29. [This technology] would revitalize
communities, enrich schools, end poverty,
eliminate the need for everything from banks
to shopping malls, and reduce dependence on
the automobile. ... In short, [it] would
transform the world.
– Vincent Mosco, The Digital Sublime, 1
Cable Television
1950s

30. [This technology] would bring the world to
the classroom and make universally available
the services of the finest teachers, the
inspiration of the greatest leaders.

31. [This technology] would bring the world to
the classroom and make universally available
the services of the finest teachers, the
inspiration of the greatest leaders.
– Larry Cuban, Teachers and Machines, 19
The Radio
1920s