Of course we were optimistic when the internet was young: • All the world's people will effortlessly be able to communicate and collaborate together? Surely th

Of course we were optimistic when the internet was young: • All the world's people will effortlessly be able to communicate and collaborate together? Surely this will bring about an age of open-mindedness and harmony! • The bulk of the world's information will go digital, and become accessible to anyone? Surely this will relegate ignorance and superstition to problems of the past! I've never considered myself an optimist, but if someone back then had predicted the internet we have today, I would have written them off as a hopeless cynic.