First, we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII – and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we've realized it’s a brochure.
Douglas Adams–author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul–was clearly a man who was never short of opinions. This wry observation from him on the World Wide Web is one of my favorite marketing quotes. (Remember, he didn’t get a chance to see anything that happened after 2001.)
The rise of mobile devices would have almost certainly have added another analogy to his thoughts. And the recent weaponizing of social media for ideological purposes would have undoubtedly spawned a new series of books. Or maybe prompted a hasty sale of all assets and the purchase of a Caribbean island.
My personal prediction:
In another 10 years, someone looking at this quote will think it should end with, “and now we realize it’s a government.”
