"Those computer guys in the late 1960s / early 1960s were looking far into the future for how computing would evolve, and their predictions were largely accurat

"Those computer guys in the late 1960s / early 1960s were looking far into the future for how computing would evolve, and their predictions were largely accurate." This is survivor bias — you're familiar with the "computer guys" who made accurate predictions, because they were lauded for being on the right side of history. There are plenty of people who predicted the opposite in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, etc; e.g. there is only a world market for "maybe" five computers (IBM president, 1943); there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home (DEC founder, 1977); the Internet is a fad and will collapse by 1996 (3COM founder, 1995); etc etc.