The Internet - 1995

**beloitpiper** · 23rd March 08, 08:28 AM

Great Newsweek article from 1995.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554

Here are some of my favorite highlights:

no online database will replace your daily newspaper

Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

Then there's cyberbusiness. 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?

**ccga3359** · 23rd March 08, 08:40 AM

The internet, just like the personal computer are just fads and will not last. I predicted this about the pc 25 years ago in high skool and stick by that.

**JerseyLawyer** · 23rd March 08, 08:45 AM

I guess that got that one a little wrong. Though the internet is still a sea of unverified, unedited information.

Not this forum, of course. We're all experts in our field.

**Arlen** · 23rd March 08, 08:47 AM

Hah hah! That is great. It reminds me of this.

**Coemgen** · 23rd March 08, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by beloitpiper

Great Newsweek article from 1995.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554

Originally Posted by Arlen

Hah hah! That is great. It reminds me of this.

Wow. Quite prescient.

**McClef** · 23rd March 08, 03:04 PM

But I remember how relatively primitive the internet was then and how slow it was so maybe such scoffing can be forgiven!

**Highland Logan** · 23rd March 08, 10:31 PM

I remember the early internet from around '92. One of my roommates used it for school. It was beyond my understanding then.

Frank

**Finn** · 24th March 08, 05:31 AM

In '93 we had Prodigy with graphics that made Pong look recent. AOL was quick to improve, but Usenet was still dominant.
In terms of communication and research, my life would be less rich without the Net. I can live without it though.

**davedove** · 24th March 08, 05:53 AM

Technology is one of the hardest things to predict. At one time the US Patent Office was recommended for closure by its director, because everything had already been invented.

Then a man named Thomas Edison came along.

**Ayin McFye** · 24th March 08, 08:27 AM

LOL, that's great. I like the line that says

"And you can't tote that laptop to the beach"

I think when people make opinions that include the words "never" or "always" it's very dangerous.

I hear people all the time say "There "may" be life on other planets, BUT we'll never know because it's impossible to travel faster than the speed of light" Ok, that might be true right now, but it might not be true in 100 years or 1000.