To: Greg S. who wrote (13698 ) 11/2/1999 10:51:00 PM From: Roger Sherman Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 28311
Greg, you had some good comments. However, look at the incredible things that have happened in just the last decade or so. I think the merging of the TV and the computer will be minor compared to the stuff that will be coming in the next few years, and in the next decade or so. Heck, I just got my first cell phone last month. It sorta blows my mind that I can contact almost anyone in the world, no matter where I am (almost), with a dinky little thing I can carry in my pocket that is smaller than a deck of cards (with a dinky little 1" antenna attached). My Grandma passed away last year, at 103 (I just hope to have a few of her genes). She was born in 1895, and they didn't even have cars when she was born. She went to school in a horse-n-buggy, and even my Mom and Dad, who're approaching 80 (and GNET investors) rode horses to one-room school houses in their youth. Perhaps all "distant" (remote) forms of communication/information/entertainment/etc.. will merge in the coming years into something few of us can even visualize now. It may even have a new name. Not computer, not television, nor a telephone. . .perhaps something else entirely different, with a different name. Okay, perhaps one of the "next big things" will be the "broadband" use of "set-top boxes," with the merging of computers, the Internet, TVs, and telephones (among other things). And perhaps the "next big thing" after that will be "voice recognition" (so that fellow GNET thread poster PatrickMark and I don't have to even get off the sofa to use it, if we don't feel like it). Heck, as someone who hates typing as a form of communication, and feels someday way in the future it will be considered a very "primitive" and archaic method of communication. I'm hoping for "thought recognition" sometime in my lifetime. . .as long as I can "edit" my thoughts before sending them. IMHO, someday (in the not-too-distant future) ALL "remote" communication (excluding "face-to-face") will NOT require "wires" at all, and the world's very extensive "wired" network will serve for emergency back-up purposes only. I do miss the days when TV's only had a single button (on/off AND volume control in one), and I truly believe someday (someone) will finally figure out the beauty, simplicity, and elegance of such a "user-friendly" solution for control of technology. Our generation is standing at the birth of the creation of an exponentially and ever-expanding world of technological revolution, the likes of which the world has never known. Things quite "magical" are really beginning to happen. Some are already calling it the "Information Age." I believe a few people in this world (with incredible "vision" for what the future will bring) are already able to see future things way beyond what most of us can even begin to imagine. I believe Paul Allen is one of those people. He is perhaps just enough "ahead-of-his-time" to "nudge" the rest of us along a little bit. Who knows what the "next big thing" will be, however I feel that watching what Paul Allen is up to is not a bad place to put a little faith in what the future will bring (and perhaps even put an investment buck or two). One of Paul's investment decisions this year was deciding to become the largest single stockholder in a small Internet company called Go2Net (GNET), run by some incredibly intelligent and motivated people. I've met and talked with Russell Horowitz (GNET's CEO), and feel he also is "brilliant" (a term I don't use lightly) who also has a vision to do things that have NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. Cool! I like that. IMHO their "Broadband Partners" (GNET, CHTR, HSAC, RCNC) will be a significant beginning to one of the "the next big things." They're in the process (at this very moment) of putting together something that has NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. I like that. Roger #49/9