3 ms·

Are people still laughing at the "dot com boom" of the late 90s? I'd argue that the hype was not as much exaggerated as ahead of its time. The vast majority of

Are people still laughing at the "dot com boom" of the late 90s? I'd argue that the hype was not as much exaggerated as ahead of its time. The vast majority of predictions about how the internet will change modern life have come true.

ChatGTP 3y ago
Are you also considering all the negatives of the boom? * Mass surveillance of populations * Social media addiction * Mass scale disinformation campaigns * Scammers at scale * Unbelievable and unparalleled wealth inequality with few tech companies having more money than most people on earth, * A highly centralized web * Child porn and abuse at scale Personally I think that yes, people are laughing at the boom and the irony of the internet, because all the promises made to overwhelmingly improve our lives seem to be met with some pretty fucked up, highly unexpected and quite serious negatives. The boom seems to be benefiting the few rather than the many.
- falcor84 3y ago
  I am considering these, and that's the thing - we shouldn't be so dismissive of the optimistic nor the pessimistic predictions about the future of AI. They might just come true.
worrycue 3y ago
Have people ever laughed at the "dot com boom" of the late 90s? Not much to laugh at since it actually delivered on most* of its promises. It promised information at your finger tips. The ability to communicate with people across the globe. Even stuff like video and audio at the click of a button which had horrible quality issues at the time, no one doubt will become a thing eventually as bandwidth improved. * The only thing that more or less bombed and faded away was VR. Remember VRML? Today, the company-formerly-known-as-FaceBook is going for round 2. So far it doesn't look good. Turns out the only thing VR is good for is video games - and all those games use their own proprietary technology to achieve their aims.
- sebzim4500 3y ago
  They were absolutely laughing at it at the time the bubble popped, obviously now in hindsight they were just ahead of their time.
- duckmysick 3y ago
  Yeah, the media and the public had a field day (years?) going after failed dot coms. Here's an example from Forbes in 2000, back when they were still a normal publication with journalists: > It was the beloved Pets.com sock puppet who coined the catchy slogan “Because pets can’t drive!” in the site’s omnipresent TV ads. Apparently they’re not good with credit cards either. Today the San Francisco-based site said that it will begin to wind down its operations, laying off 255 of its 320 employees. > Pets.com’s sock puppet was the unofficial mascot of e-commerce and had such a cult following that the site licensed a sock puppet line of merchandise in the spring. Unfortunately, it seems there was little correlation between the demand for plush sock puppet toys and the other products–think kitty litter and rawhide chew toys–that Pets.com sells.
  - worrycue 3y ago
    They made fun of the failed companies but don't think anyone made fun of the Internet as a whole. Today, Amazon pretty much "took over" Pets.com's business.

ChatGTP 3y ago

Are you also considering all the negatives of the boom? * Mass surveillance of populations * Social media addiction * Mass scale disinformation campaigns * Scammers at scale * Unbelievable and unparalleled wealth inequality with few tech companies having more money than most people on earth, * A highly centralized web * Child porn and abuse at scale Personally I think that yes, people are laughing at the boom and the irony of the internet, because all the promises made to overwhelmingly improve our lives seem to be met with some pretty fucked up, highly unexpected and quite serious negatives. The boom seems to be benefiting the few rather than the many.

falcor84 3y ago
I am considering these, and that's the thing - we shouldn't be so dismissive of the optimistic nor the pessimistic predictions about the future of AI. They might just come true.

worrycue 3y ago

Have people ever laughed at the "dot com boom" of the late 90s? Not much to laugh at since it actually delivered on most* of its promises. It promised information at your finger tips. The ability to communicate with people across the globe. Even stuff like video and audio at the click of a button which had horrible quality issues at the time, no one doubt will become a thing eventually as bandwidth improved. * The only thing that more or less bombed and faded away was VR. Remember VRML? Today, the company-formerly-known-as-FaceBook is going for round 2. So far it doesn't look good. Turns out the only thing VR is good for is video games - and all those games use their own proprietary technology to achieve their aims.

sebzim4500 3y ago
They were absolutely laughing at it at the time the bubble popped, obviously now in hindsight they were just ahead of their time.
duckmysick 3y ago
Yeah, the media and the public had a field day (years?) going after failed dot coms. Here's an example from Forbes in 2000, back when they were still a normal publication with journalists: > It was the beloved Pets.com sock puppet who coined the catchy slogan “Because pets can’t drive!” in the site’s omnipresent TV ads. Apparently they’re not good with credit cards either. Today the San Francisco-based site said that it will begin to wind down its operations, laying off 255 of its 320 employees. > Pets.com’s sock puppet was the unofficial mascot of e-commerce and had such a cult following that the site licensed a sock puppet line of merchandise in the spring. Unfortunately, it seems there was little correlation between the demand for plush sock puppet toys and the other products–think kitty litter and rawhide chew toys–that Pets.com sells.
- worrycue 3y ago
  They made fun of the failed companies but don't think anyone made fun of the Internet as a whole. Today, Amazon pretty much "took over" Pets.com's business.