Occasional Prescience
I remember, around 1974 or 75, going to record stores with friends to buy the latest Jethro Tull album or whatever, and telling them, some day, all the music that was ever recorded will be on a computer somewhere, and you’ll be able to instantly hear any song you want, any time you want it.
Of course, the internet did not exist yet. My friends – even the ones who shared my experience with PLATO – thought I was nuts. And in truth I had little idea of how it would actually work. I had a vague notion of something like the telephone network: wires emanating from a central source and connecting to some device in every home. But although I couldn’t say how it would happen, I felt pretty sure it would happen somehow.
And now we have iTunes*. Wish I’d invented THAT.
On the other hand, in the mid-1970s I never imagined something like a laptop computer. In my experience at the time, computers filled entire rooms and cost a million dollars. It didn’t occur to me that eventually there might be computers that would fit on your lap. Or in your pocket.
But hey, I’m a software guy. I never paid that much attention to the hardware.
* And Pandora, and Rhapsody, and Spotify, and Slacker, etc.