Discuss the choices | Nominate An Innovator | Poll  
hypertexts is a trapdoor that can plunge you down a different pathway of the story. Choose one and you drop into a corporate-strategy memo. Choose another and there's a XXX-rated sexual rant. The story you read is in some sense the story you make.

Amerika teaches digital art at the University of Colorado, where his students develop works that straddle the lines between art, film and literature. "I tell them not to get caught up in mere plot," he says. Some avant-garde writers — Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino — have also experimented with novels that wander out of their author's control. "But what makes the Net so exciting," says Amerika, "is that you can add sound, randomly generated links, 3-D modeling, animation." That room of one's own is turning into a fun house.

 


Will the 21st century produce more important innovations than the last? Who will be the top inventors? Tell us if you agree with TIME's choices.


Which of the following breakthroughs do you think will come first?

The ability to clone humans
A cure for cancer
Extending the average life past 100
Other


Do you know the next Einstein? Is your neighbor working on the next great health breakthrough? If so, e-mail us the name of your nominee, explaining in 50 words or less why we should choose him or her.

Go to the Time 100

About the Series

PHOTOS: (Ace) Wade Weigel, Alex Calderwood, Doug Herrick by KAREN MOSKOWITZ FOR TIME
Brian Barth by THOMAS BROENING FOR TIME
David Neeleman by MARK GREENBERG/VISIONS
Vern Raburn by DAN PEEBLES FOR TIME
Anton Rupert by GREG MARINOVICH/LIAISON FOR TIME
Copyright © 2001 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Privacy Policy