| Stoll has written a lovely 2010 mea culpa, originally a (now-vanished) comment at:
http://boingboing.net/2010/02/26/curmudgeony-essay-on.html, I saved the comment. Quoting: "Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler. Wrong? Yep. At the time, I was trying to speak against the tide of futuristic commentary on how The Internet Will Solve Our Problems. Gives me pause. Most of my screwups have had limited publicity: Forgetting my lines in my 4th grade play. Misidentifying a Gilbert and Sullivan song while suddenly drafted to fill in as announcer on a classical radio station. Wasting a week hunting for planets interior to Mercury’s orbit using an infrared system with a noise level so high that it couldn’t possibly detect ‘em. Heck – trying to dry my sneakers in a microwave oven (a quarter century later, there’s still a smudge on the kitchen ceiling) And, as I’ve laughed at others’ foibles, I think back to some of my own cringeworthy contributions. Now, whenever I think I know what’s happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff… Warm cheers to all, -Cliff Stoll on a rainy Friday afternoon in Oakland" |
A lot of his words fell flat as incorrect prognostications in the 2000s and 2010s, but now that we're in the 2020s, I feel the heart and soul of what he was getting at rings true.
The bright-eyed luster faded, revealing the deeper truths.
> Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen.
Bingo.
> Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading.
More true with each and every passing day.
> Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them—one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question
Google is starting to feel like that, especially when looking for more than simple facts.
> Won't the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.
Computers won't make people interested in municipal issues. At the national level, it's closer to team sports with all the betting and emotional rivalry.
> Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software.Who needs teachers when you've got computer-aided education?
Schools continue to slide. Phones and tablets grant access to vast educational resources, but most kids don't use them in this way.
> And you can't tote that laptop to the beach.
Gotta find fault in this one, though. I've once or twice been goaded into being oncall during vacation. That's my own stupid fault, though.