TIME EUROPE
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A Brief History of the Future
Prognostications from Davos
"In the future, you will not just deal with books but with the whole mind of humanity. You will even be able to go back to Roman times on the Net. It's much better than being with just one book." -- Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, director of the Mirolab Center at the University of Geneva
"Davos is going to die, like all institutions that get too big. It has gotten out of hand. It is now dominated completely by consultants and the media." - Executive of a French multinational
"[When I have something to say,] I will write a book and it will continue to be a good investment. A book is like a knife or a fork, once it is invented it's done. You can't do much to improve on it. A book--you can read it in the bathroom or take it to the beach--it is easily transportable information and will continue to be viable." -- Italian author Umberto Eco
"Whether you're more comfortable in a virtual world or a real world depends on your culture. I grew up with computers and the Web, so I am very much at home in a virtual world. If you go to buy an airline ticket and you deal with someone who is rude and disagreeable, then you go on-line and buy your ticket from a virtual person who smiles and looks at you, which do you prefer? I'd prefer the second." -- Nadia Magnenat Thalmann
"Our societies will be split into three categories by the Internet, resembling Orwell's 1984 world: the prolets, who only watch TV and receive prefabricated images and information; the petit-bourgeoisie, who only use computers in a passive way; the Nomenklatura--those who know how to select and elaborate information ... But these distinctions will not follow traditional class divisions. A poor man can belong to the Nomenklatura and a king can be a prolet. I fear, however, that the bulk of the prolets will be in the Third World: to use the Net you have to eat at least twice a day." -- Umberto Eco
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