In which the Guru of the Digital Generation discourses on McLuhan, electronic neighbors and square dancing

By J.D. Lasica

Nicholas Negroponte, 51, founding director of the Media Lab at MIT and Wired magazine’s popular columnist from its inception, is one of the leading lights of the digital revolution.

His 1995 book, “Being Digital,” looks at the implications of the new technologies for global communication, interpersonal relationships, censorship, and our very notions of reality. This transformative technology will fundamentally alter how we learn, how we work, how we entertain ourselves — essentially how we live.

J.D. Lasica caught up with Negroponte via modem on March 21, 1995, during the author’s world book tour.

Where are you right now? You mentioned in your e-mail last week that you were in Toyko, on your way to Zurich, Switzerland.

Gutersloh, Germany, which is about halfway between Hannover and Dusseldorf and is the home of Bertelsmann, one of the Media Lab’s sponsors.

Where are you at this moment? On an airplane, in a hotel?

In my hotel room, waiting to have dinner with the CEO.

What are you wearing? (This is to flesh out the piece. Honest.)

Pyjamas

OK, on to the book. At the Media Lab, you’ve been at the forefront of information technology for years. Are you surprised by the explosion of interest in technology and the Internet and the digital frontier in the past year or two?

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