Bob CollinsAs I indicated earlier, I’m filling in for Jon Gordon this week on Future Tense. So I’m thinking deep tech thoughts, which gets more and more difficult with every birthday. Seriously, am I really supposed to be excited about Nintendo DSi? The cool kids are, I hear. Then there’s Google Voice, and all things Twitter, which the media — bowing — is overdosing on just to prove it’s a “cool kid,” even though we all know it’s not.
Whenever Jon is away and I start jumping back into the tech life, I’m drawn back to 1984. The scene: The newsroom at the RKO Radio Network in New York. Anchor Jim Cameron is muttering something about the incredible power of his new 1200 baud modem. It makes patrolling CompuServe so much faster.
What’s new and what’s hot is often new and hot for a short period of time. The things that are going to change the world with their potential, often don’t.
Yesterday’s AOL instant messenger is today’s Twitter, which is tomorrow’s… well, who knows? Ten years from now, maybe it will be as archaic as the 1200 baud modem. Maybe not.
Which technology is most likely to fulfill its promise? And which is a solution in search of a problem?
(h/t: Cyberjournalist.net)
