It was at that time that Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT professor and the MIT Media Lab's founder, foresaw that media such as radio, television, telephones, movies, newspapers, magazines, and books would undergo major changes and gradual convergence. Inspired by this vision, he set up the multidisciplinary research institution.
當時 MIT 教授、實驗室創辦人尼葛洛龐帝預見，廣播、電視、電話、電影、報紙、雜誌、書籍等傳播通訊媒體，將發生某些重大且逐漸聚合的改變，而成立這個跨領域研究機構。