A 1995 Newsweek article has been making the rounds. Author and computing expert Cliff Stoll wrote on essay on an emerging technology — the Internet — and dismissed pundits and visionaries who saw an exciting future in cyberspace.
“Baloney,” he says, declaring that e-commerce isn’t viable, computers have no role in the classroom, and online sources will never replace the daily newspaper. What’s astonishing is not only that his general ideas about computing were so wrong, but that he foresees almost every significant digital advance — social networking, eBooks, even online porn — and concludes they can’t possibly succeed.
Stoll’s article is a fascinating glimpse back to a moment in time.