This Blog Does Not Exist

Let's hop in the WABAC Machine and turn the dial to February 1995. Austria, Finland and Sweden have just joined the European Union. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are about to take The Turner Diaries way, way too seriously. And in roughly eight months, OJ Simpson will give us all a refresher on how the American justice system really works.

Also, a certain global system of interconnected computer networks is about to revolutionize virtually every facet of modern life. Or is it? Some, especially Newsweek prognosticator Clifford Stoll, are not convinced.

Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in 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.

This companion piece to Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil is a must-read, if only because so rarely do we see someone get it so completely wrong. The most recent example probably occurred sometime in late 2002/early 2003.