[ipaddr]

I was reading an email exchange from Atari employees in 1984. There was one comment.. computers are not useful for anything but playing games. It's all marketing fluff.

Here we are 40 years later communicating with computers. I wonder if in 40 years someone will read your comment and wonder how clueless some were in this era.

[unmole]

They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

[mrguyorama]

They laughed at Columbus and they were right! Columbus said "I think the earth is like half the size everyone else says it is and I'm going to sail around it" and everyone with reputable mathematicians said "Nope"

If America didn't exist, and Columbus was relying on his plan, they all would have starved to death roughly where the East Coast is

[unmole]

I don't like the Columbus reference either. I was merely quoting Carl Sagan.

[jacquesm]

> I wonder if in 40 years someone will read your comment and wonder how clueless some were in this era.

That reminds me of a line from a track by Apollo 440:

"Mick Jagger came up to me and I said 'I've seen the future' and he goes 'Yeah, if there is one...'".

[rootusrootus]

> I wonder if in 40 years someone will read your comment and wonder how clueless some were in this era.

Hindsight is 20/20, so of course someone will still make that mistake 40 years down the road. We can barely predict with any meaningful accuracy what will happen next year. The idea that we can predict 40 years out is the very height of hubris.

[UncleMeat]

It is certainly possible. But there are a few important thoughts here.

1. That people have been wildly wrong about various technologies before is not evidence that a given specific technology will succeed.

2. Many critics don't doubt the technical capabilities but instead worry about the social harm of systems developed using cryptocurrencies.

[nathias]

No need to speculate, I'm wondering it right now.