Plus ca change…

Consider this quote:

“In fifteen years the Internet has superimposed itself upon civilization. Its future is limitless, not predictable. It is daily demonstrating its ability to extend the scope of our economic fabric to lengths undreamed of, and in ways which were but yesterday fantastic dreams. And it has already proved the power to destroy utterly the world as we have built it; has forced us to take sober and urgent thought as to how this mighty and as yet proportional and yet irresponsible force may be subordinated to the common good. The industrial changes following the introduction of steam and electrical machinery are trifling and infinitesimal compared with those already following in the wake of mankind’s new-found ability to communicate.”

So what’s funny about that? Answer: it was written by Kenneth Chafee McIntosh and published in The Altantic in September 1921. Eh? OK, I’ll come clean. McIntosh was writing about the aeroplane. I merely replaced all his references to aviation with references to the Net.