Technology by any other name
One of my favorite quotes at moment goes roughly
"We call it technology 'cause it doesn't quite work yet" sort
of if it worked right we would call it a phone or whatever.
There is an historical parallel to the internet which has come
and gone. It was suppose to unite the world. It created a
core of "technical helpers" to help drive it and it was wiped
out -- more or less -- by something that worked right. What
was it?
Answer: The telegraph.
There is a good book about this called _The Victorian Internet_
amazon list