[nabla9]

exact quote:

>"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law'–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."

Krugmans response to criticism:

> First, look at the whole piece. It was a thing for the Times magazine's 100th anniversary, written as if by someone looking back from 2098, so the point was to be fun and provocative, not to engage in careful forecasting; I mean, there are lines in there about St. Petersburg having more skyscrapers than New York, which was not a prediction, just a thought-provoker.

>But the main point is that I don't claim any special expertise in technology -- I almost never make technological forecasts, and the only reason there was stuff like that in the 98 piece was because the assignment required that I do that sort of thing.

[tvanantwerp]

He was partly right that most people have nothing to say to each other. But that doesn't seem to stop them from talking anyway.

[ra1n85]

Not sure what you're trying to say here - that Krugman's words should not be considered seriously because "it was all in fun"? That he commented on a space in which he not qualified to do so "because someone told him to"?