The revolution

I finished reading a book last night that was written in the early 90's, before the internet became the sensation that it is today. It was a genera of science fiction called cyberpunk, which was a bigger culture in the 80's and 90's than it is today. The author, Neal Stephenson, speculated in his book that eventually computer monitors would become obsolete for the recreational user, and would be replaced with a pair of goggles that scan light on to the lenses. The user would then be immersed in to a 3d world, and would be able to navigate through the "Metraverse" by looking in the direction that they would like to move towards. Stephenson's version of the internet is way more awesome than our own, which he dubbed "Flatworld". But what was most interesting about his interpretation of the future of the internet was that he greatly underestimated its popularity. But then again, who could have guessed what it would become?

While we will have to see if Web 2.0 escalates to the scale of "revolution", it has certainly done much to change the way that people go about their lives. Being part of the generation that has grown up with pixels and cd-roms and Steve Jobs, we will have to see if we can meet this change when it comes..