Ithiel de Sola Pool (October 26, 1917 – March 11, 1984) was an American academic who was a widely celebrated and often controversial figure in the field of social sciences and information technology. He did significant research on technology and its effects on society. He coined the term "convergence" to describe the effect of various scientific innovations on society in a futuristic world, and made predictions of ways that technology would impact society that were often prescient. In his 1983 book Technologies of Freedom, he predicted that digital electronics would allow convergence between historically separated modes of communication, and that these modes would eventually become one single grand system. Early life and education De Sola Pool was the son of David de Sola Pool, spiritual leader of the Sephardic Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City. His mother was Tamar Hirschensohn, the Palestine-born daughter of Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn. His sister was Naomi de Sola Pool, a physician. Pool was initially educated at an Ethical Culture School in New York City. He attended the University of Chicago, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1938, a Master of Arts in 1939, and his Ph.D. in 1952. The university was under the direction of Robert Maynard Hutchins, its president from 1929 to 1945, a period when it was called "the birthplace of modern American social sciences." Career During World War II, Pool went to Washington, D.C., where, under Harold Lasswell, he studied and researched the effects of Nazi and communist propaganda. He held academic appointments at Stanford University, and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he joined the MIT Center for International Studies. He remained at MIT for more than 30 years, researching the effects of communication technology on global politics. Work De Sola Pool's earliest interest was the study of rhetorical symbols of democracy, in which he analyzed speechmakers of totalitarian regimes to decipher the power and influence of words. However, he always returned to his fascination with technology and communications. He was instrumental in establishing the small world hypothesis now known as the Six Degrees of Separation. He eventually became the leading authority on the social and political effects of communications. In 1973, his name appeared in The Communications Handbook, where he defined the social and political effects of technological advances in a chapter called "Public Opinion." In 1983, Pool proved to be at the forefront of research into