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It's amazing just how quickly you can catch the under estimation of the internet's potential. Within the first sentence, starting with the word "imagine", the l

It's amazing just how quickly you can catch the under estimation of the internet's potential. Within the first sentence, starting with the word "imagine", the largest image that could be conjured is related to viewing content created offline, rather than creating and sharing it within the internet itself. In the furthest stretches of the imagination, the prediction still falls very short. No criticism to anyone in 1994, it's just fascinating how difficult it is to peer far into the future.

willhinsa 4y ago
I think Bowie's prediction for the impact of the internet was not too far off the mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaHcOs7mhfU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaHcOs7mhfU
- paul7986 4y ago
  Napster came into existence in '99
- revolvingocelot 4y ago
  The parent comment is 6 minutes, but the full 15 minute interview (about more the the internet) is worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLf6KZmJyrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLf6KZmJyrA
  - solomonb 4y ago
    Has Jeremy Paxman since then reflected on this discussion publicly?
    - revolvingocelot 4y ago
      No idea, sorry.
- drexlspivey 4y ago
  Also check out Arthur C Clarke (author of the 2001 Space Odyssey) predicting internet connected personal computers and remote work in 1974 https://youtu.be/OIRZebE8O84 https://youtu.be/OIRZebE8O84
- blast 4y ago
  Two years earlier, he dismissed it as "just a tool like a typewriter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmxOq9STmQM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmxOq9STmQM, so it's interesting how he evolved. He does already say that he liked immediate feedback from comments about the show the night before, so the point about the audience was already there. This is consistent with Bowie's genius to be more an early adopter type than a visionary type. A hell of an early adopter.
Julesman 4y ago
This video certainly isn't the most profound take on the future of the internet at that time. By this point people were predicting just about everything we have now. Mainstream coverage of that has always sounded out of touch.
- enos_feedler 4y ago
  I sort of arrived at this as well in my comment above. This is mainstream media with a more outsider take vs insiders actually building stuff on the internet. I still don’t think anyone really had the vision of everything today.
unity1001 4y ago
> the largest image that could be conjured is related to viewing content created offline Its because 1990s world was still the feudal, one-way world in which large corporations dominated everything and the users 'knew their place' and consumed content and products. Occasionally, a corporation would stoop low as to ask users' feedback to improve their product. And people would praise and elevate that corporation as being 'caring for their customers'. That was it. The extent of users' say in anything. Early Internet still reflected that world order. It was a one way street in which the people consumed what the corporations produced. There weren't even comment forms under any article in any prominent publication. After all, who are you, a lowly pleb, to comment under an article in which a glorious, 6-figure columnist from the 'right background' wrote. Know your place. User-generated content lived in the fringes of the Internet in those days. It was the plebs' place. The unwashed. Then comes blogging. Social media. User-generated content starts to dominate and becomes de-facto content. Everything turns upside down. We are living in its aftermath, in which its even hard to imagine how one-way the early Internet was.
- kurthr 4y ago
  I hear "knew their place" and all I can think of is that they knew they were watching ads... now many people think that all their content is free (like information wants to be ;^) not realizing they are are the product being sold. It's not like tiktok/Insta or the news/blog promotional articles are anything but ads... people just don't "know their place" any more.
- axus 4y ago
  GeoCities started taking off in early 1996, at the same time NYTimes.com started publishing. Of course there was AOL and personal webpages before that.
- bcrosby95 4y ago
  > Early Internet still reflected that world order. Early internet had little to none of that world order. Those corporations are slow to act and tend to be last to the party. I think you're conflating people from that world order and how they interpreted the internet, with how the internet actually was. > User-generated content lived in the fringes of the Internet in those days. It was the plebs' place. The unwashed. User generated content was a large majority of the content of the early internet. Usenet. MUDs. Email. Forums. Random people's university websites.
registeredcorn 4y ago
This is might just be me misremembering things, but I have a vague memory that, when the "internet trend" was starting to feel less like a trend, and more something that had some staying power, people had a concern of looking ridiculous in the same way they had a generation before, during the nuclear age. "People will be driving nuclear powered cars on the moon!" etc. Mix in the fact that there was a trend of children making headlines for breaking into various high-tech or secretive areas, and it seemed more like something that didn't have much cause to be respected.

willhinsa 4y ago

I think Bowie's prediction for the impact of the internet was not too far off the mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaHcOs7mhfU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaHcOs7mhfU

paul7986 4y ago
Napster came into existence in '99
revolvingocelot 4y ago
The parent comment is 6 minutes, but the full 15 minute interview (about more the the internet) is worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLf6KZmJyrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLf6KZmJyrA
- solomonb 4y ago
  Has Jeremy Paxman since then reflected on this discussion publicly?
  - revolvingocelot 4y ago
    No idea, sorry.
drexlspivey 4y ago
Also check out Arthur C Clarke (author of the 2001 Space Odyssey) predicting internet connected personal computers and remote work in 1974 https://youtu.be/OIRZebE8O84 https://youtu.be/OIRZebE8O84
blast 4y ago
Two years earlier, he dismissed it as "just a tool like a typewriter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmxOq9STmQM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmxOq9STmQM, so it's interesting how he evolved. He does already say that he liked immediate feedback from comments about the show the night before, so the point about the audience was already there. This is consistent with Bowie's genius to be more an early adopter type than a visionary type. A hell of an early adopter.

Julesman 4y ago

This video certainly isn't the most profound take on the future of the internet at that time. By this point people were predicting just about everything we have now. Mainstream coverage of that has always sounded out of touch.

enos_feedler 4y ago
I sort of arrived at this as well in my comment above. This is mainstream media with a more outsider take vs insiders actually building stuff on the internet. I still don’t think anyone really had the vision of everything today.

unity1001 4y ago

> the largest image that could be conjured is related to viewing content created offline Its because 1990s world was still the feudal, one-way world in which large corporations dominated everything and the users 'knew their place' and consumed content and products. Occasionally, a corporation would stoop low as to ask users' feedback to improve their product. And people would praise and elevate that corporation as being 'caring for their customers'. That was it. The extent of users' say in anything. Early Internet still reflected that world order. It was a one way street in which the people consumed what the corporations produced. There weren't even comment forms under any article in any prominent publication. After all, who are you, a lowly pleb, to comment under an article in which a glorious, 6-figure columnist from the 'right background' wrote. Know your place. User-generated content lived in the fringes of the Internet in those days. It was the plebs' place. The unwashed. Then comes blogging. Social media. User-generated content starts to dominate and becomes de-facto content. Everything turns upside down. We are living in its aftermath, in which its even hard to imagine how one-way the early Internet was.

kurthr 4y ago
I hear "knew their place" and all I can think of is that they knew they were watching ads... now many people think that all their content is free (like information wants to be ;^) not realizing they are are the product being sold. It's not like tiktok/Insta or the news/blog promotional articles are anything but ads... people just don't "know their place" any more.
axus 4y ago
GeoCities started taking off in early 1996, at the same time NYTimes.com started publishing. Of course there was AOL and personal webpages before that.
bcrosby95 4y ago
> Early Internet still reflected that world order. Early internet had little to none of that world order. Those corporations are slow to act and tend to be last to the party. I think you're conflating people from that world order and how they interpreted the internet, with how the internet actually was. > User-generated content lived in the fringes of the Internet in those days. It was the plebs' place. The unwashed. User generated content was a large majority of the content of the early internet. Usenet. MUDs. Email. Forums. Random people's university websites.

registeredcorn 4y ago

This is might just be me misremembering things, but I have a vague memory that, when the "internet trend" was starting to feel less like a trend, and more something that had some staying power, people had a concern of looking ridiculous in the same way they had a generation before, during the nuclear age. "People will be driving nuclear powered cars on the moon!" etc. Mix in the fact that there was a trend of children making headlines for breaking into various high-tech or secretive areas, and it seemed more like something that didn't have much cause to be respected.