Newsweak

Here's a 1995 Newsweek piece by Clifford Stoll predicting the demise of the Internet. I think there's another article in the same issue discussing why Deep Blue Something, who had just released "Breakfast At Tiffanys," would be the most influential band of the 90's.

FWIW, Stoll recently joked about being wrong here.

The Internet? Bah!

Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana

After two decades online, I'm perplexed. It's not that I haven't had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I've met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.