Abstract
Today, the expression "Digital Multimedia" triggers a range of overlapping dreams and expectations. Cognitive biases, emerging computational techniques, prototype applications and available products stimulate a constant stream of definitions. From "Sight, sound, motion -it's as simple as that" to "Hundreds of megabytes of content -it's a fundamental paradigm shift," promoters herald a revolution in communication. [1] Minimally digital implies a computer-driven system which manages storage, retrieval and display of information across media types. In concert the content and platform should be capable of generating conversations between the user, the machine and chunks of information. Looking out past today's limited applications, with their somewhat clunky sensual and cognitive transitions, into the crystal ball of future information demands and technologies, we anticipate the realization of computational television. Responding to a range of stimuli -- including voice, eye motion and gesture -this incarnation of an electronically networked all-digital media system should be able to generate automatic on-the-fly selection and compositing of information segments from multiple data sources, as well as virtual representations of objects and motions structured to mirror known physical and paraphysical behaviors.

BISCAP International, the 1990 Digital Multimedia Conference, The Lafayette Hotel, Boston, MA, May 30- June 1, 1990.
http://mf.media.mit.edu/pubs/conference/YesterdayToday.pdf