1995 Newsweek Article on the Internet Predicts Everything, Then Says it Will Never Happen

This is why you need to follow the Hacker News Bot on Twitter. For great stuff like this: Clifford Stoll: Why Web Won’t Be Nirvana – Newsweek

Clifford wasn’t just some run of the mill 1990′s Luddite either, he was some sort of uber cyber hunter that tracked down hackers. It’s amazing how simultaneous right and wrong one can be.

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[.]

And there’s more:

We’re promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month?

It really is worth the read. To be fair Clifford Stoll apparently has repented and now sell blown glass on the Internet.