Clifford Stoll's Infamous Internet Prediction

In 1995, Newsweek published a column by Clifford Stoll that mocked early enthusiasm for the World Wide Web and dismissed bold visions of its future as “baloney.” The article flatly predicted that “no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher, and no computer network will change the way government works.” In the decades since, his prediction has become one of the most cited examples of how badly early critics underestimated the internet’s impact.

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