2053 An Internet Continuum
As we reach the very end of 2023, long before 2053, I’ve noticed a ton of curiosities occurring in my little world of the Internet, tech and anti-tech, and I wanted to write down my thoughts this year, close to another new year and thoughts about the past 30 years working with the Internet and the changes I have experienced with the Internet, and even going back 30 years, starting in 1993.
1993 was a very important year in the world of the Internet for me, because as I sat at my job as an engineer for Bell Atlantic Mobile, a very curious program came across my desk called Mozilla. For me, in that year, I was already decent at Unix; I ran a dozen Sun Microsystems, and was as good as as any IT guy running cables between machines in data centers, yet I had only finished my poly sci degree just a couple years before at The University of Maryland (I dropped comp sci because it was a bore). If you missed these years this may be of interest. If you are new to all of this, then it still may be of interest.
The reason I point out Mozilla, is it was the very first real browser that we could use to surf around the web. And we did surf for whatever there was available. Not much in 1993. I remember an early Yahoo that barely had anything on it. A little more in 1994. But by 1995, I kind of remember a bunch of public websites, like Euro-rail schedules and the weather, and of course the time. Getting accurate time was an issue in 1993. In fact, one of my jobs was calling a number that would read out the time every 10 seconds. “At The Sound Of The Beep, It Will Be 3:30pm and 30 seconds. At that very second I sync’d the 3B2 machines and made sure the cellular switches all had the right time. They would often get the time wrong over time.
What I am reckoning with as of late is a bunch of code I started to write in 2001, which runs a bunch of websites I have kept alive, with some portions still in place since 2001. What I am still trying to understand is how can a piece of code that ran in 2001 still work today? It is happening and possible. If you told me that there was a piece of code from 1971, in the year 1991 that was still running, I would think you were nutballs. That chasm is a big one to cross, because at least between 2001 and 2023 there is some consistency of the framework, namely the internet. 1971 vs. 1991 is like an exponential difference. I can think of 1, the screens at all the airports showing the flights in 1991 looked like it was from 1965, so anything is possible. The point I am trying to make is from 1993 to 2023 is a continuum. There are a few things that have stayed. This is rare in tech. And I think by the year 2053, much of my code will be gone, but the framework may still be alive.
And if anybody pulls up this article in 2053, not written by AI, they can try to connect the dots and see if any remnants of the 1993 experience to 2023 is still left. I have my doubts about the way the Internet is expressed to people. But I feel the concepts of connectivity and interdependence will all be the same.
While the tech all remains growing in a consistent manner the one thing I noticed that is a revolving door, always changing is the people. But the people are still just repeating the lessons of the previous group. Every 5 years or so a new group of young tech people join the fray, making websites, apps, selling us digital marketing. And they seem to think it is all simple and easy to understand. It is today. But the truth is this type of world was built on layers, from hardware to networks, to software, to marketing, to cloud, to apis and other layers. I only know all the layers because I was there at the beginning of the continuum.
One thing to note… I am convinced that 2024 will be a year all about personal social media, and at the cross hair of that is podcasting. I think podcasting is about to go through a new podcasting-on-steroids period in time, ending by the end of next year as something different. Possibly the emergence of a podcasting type of social network, maybe something new (not truth social or some other copy cat). We want something new and refreshing to use (unlike X, now a piece of sh_t.) I use X, the network formerly known as Twitter, but as far as I am concerned it is on it’s way to annihilation. The name change breeds doom and gloom and stupidity. If you could convince me try me. No marketing expert can deny it was the dumbest branding move in business history. There are some mistakes, but the titanic is… what it is. I don’t think X should be shut down. I just don’t think we should give fictions or delusions any attention.
Have a great happy new year and in the coming new year please visit some of my new ventures or events.
We have a new co-working space with Events, Podcasting, Mailboxes, Conference Rooms and more at The Greenhouse Offices in Boca Raton. You can visit https://startuppop.com for more information.
I have a brand new AI product about to launch called PAIGN.AI. As of writing this, the site is not live, but I am already hearing from a ton of beta testers they are ready to start using this one of a kind automation tool. Please email me at daniel.gudema@paign.ai if you would like to get on the Beta when it is released.
I have a PropTech (PROPERTY TECHNOLOGY) Pitch Event with 70 attendees coming to our digs on Jan 10th at StartupPOP Spaces at The Greenhouse in Boca Raton. It is free to sign up till Jan 1st. If interested, sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/real-estate-proptech-startuppop-spaces-pitch-event-sponsored-by-4suites-tickets-778822929347
Thanks to all my friends and sponsors https://startuppop.com, https://4suites.io, https://realtybrix.com, https://page1auto.com, https://page1biz.com, https://page1fitness.biz, https://leadsowl.com, https://pre-dating.com, https://lockandkeyevents.com, https://strategicpoints.com, https://strategictek.com, https://resourceshark.com, https://alljewishlivesmatters.com, https://speeddatingatlanta.com, and others out there.
