Politics
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HOW DO YOU BUILD AN INFORMATION HIGHWAY?
September 16, 1991http://www.businessweek.com/arch…
In 1955, a Democratic senator from Tennessee named Albert Gore spearheaded legislation to criss-cross the nation with interstate highways to secure the nation's defense and build its economy. Thirty-six years later, his son is back at it. Senator Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.) wants the nation to build a whole new kind of highway system: an "information superhighway" with lanes made of glass fibers and cloverleafs of silicon.
Gore, a Presidential candidate in 1988, envisions this supernetwork as the first step in creating a new infrastructure--for a new Information Economy. His bill, the High Performance Computing Act, would fund research in how to manage and use superfast computers and networks. But, with its huge capacity to move bits of computer and video data nearly instantly across the country, the network also will serve as a proving ground for the type of national network that Gore and other advocates say is feeded for the U. S. economy to be competitive. A national data superhighway would speed all sorts of transactions, give corporations a better handle on their businesses, and serve up dazzling entertainment and information services for consumers.
"I think it will enable this country to leapfrog the Japanese," says Gore.