Another way to predict the future is to realize that it takes a very long time--about 10 to 20 years--to get a technology out of the research lab and into every

Another way to predict the future is to realize that it takes a very long time--about 10 to 20 years--to get a technology out of the research lab and into everyday life. It's very difficult to get brand new ideas out in less than a decade; in the case of the transistor, it took almost 25 years. No matter what you do, it may take several companies, several different groups of people, several different areas of venture capital funding and more before you get something back. http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/futures.htm http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/futures.htm Java took a bunch of academically proven ideas, and put them together in a way that was workable for industry (and yes you're quite right, also marketed as an web applet-language, which is remarkable for Java's failure at it). Haskell (for example) first appeared in 1990. 1990+25 = 2015. Possibly, what we are seeing is just the historical rate of technology transfer.