Personal journals are always an embarrassment of riches. No, that’s not quite right.
Richly embarrassing. Yes, that’s it.
As I’ve mentioned previously I kept a journal for a short time in 1996 (age: 32) and on March 6 I had this to say about the Internet:
Meanwhile, I’ve got a two month trial membership on Mindlink and I’m trying this whole Internet thing out. While it’s great for e-mail, the World Wide Web (WWW) is, as an information source, kind of like leafing through a magazine which has pages that can only be turned every five minutes. In a word, slow. I’ve already found files on the Web and then switched to Mindlink’s BBS to download the file in half the time it would take to get piped through the Byzantine host of servers on the Internet. Although it is immensely popular and overhyped (see Time Capsule Note, above), I think the WWW is something that will truly be practical and convenient at about the same time video phones are practical and convenient. When hell freezes over, you say? No, but give it another five or ten years (remember, the video phone is one of those ideas that was thought up decades ago that still has not moved one inch closer to being an everyday thing. This, in comparison to other devices that have become common sights in this end-of-century world we live in: baby machines, personal heli-cars and robot servants to clean up after us.
Yes, I called it “the WWW” and predicted it would be practical in 5-10 years instead of realizing I just had a crappy ISP and a dial-up connection to match. Two years after this was written I got my first cable modem and learned that the Internet actually stayed on all the time!
While we still don’t have baby machines, you have to admit that personal heli-cars would be a terrible idea. Look at how poorly people drive in two dimensions, never mind adding a third. And we do have robot servants now if you count the Roomba. We just needs dozens of other special purpose robots now that vacuuming has been automated.
In conclusion, my ability to predict the future, especially when it comes to technology, is pretty spotty.
I was right about the 8-track tape being a dead format, though.
