10 Stupidest Quotes Ever Said By Smartest Tech Personalities


#4 "We'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure." –Clifford Stoll, author of 'Silicon Snake Oil.'

Clifford Stoll is an U.S. astronomer and author. He is best known for his pursuit of hacker Markus Hess in 1986 and the subsequent 1989 book, The Cuckoo's Egg, which details his investigation.

This Newsweek article from 1995, written by Silicon Snake Oil author Clifford Stoll, is wonderfully inaccurate. "Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure."

Stoll also says ecommerce, or "cyber-business" won't happen, and that information posted to the Internet won't influence democratic governments.

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