

The Decline of E-Empires (Paul Krugman) - ucha
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/krugman-the-decline-of-e-empires.html#!

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pyalot2
"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in "Metcalfe's
law"–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is
proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent:
most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become
clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the
fax machine's."

Paul Krugman, 1998

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tzs
Adjusted for inflation, I would not at all be surprised if that was right. The
FAX machine was a critical business tool for a large fraction of businesses
for a very long time.

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pyalot2
If you turn off everybodies fax machines right now, it's a bit of an
inconvenience. If you turn the internet off right now, it's a major global
disaster impacting the economy as well as every other activity of modern
societies.

Adjusted for inflation, I'd say people do have something to say to each other,
as well as that the economic, social and otherwise impact of the internet is
enormous.

Ironically, this written on the internet...

