10 Years That Changed Not a Darned Thing

The whole tech world has gone mad in the last few weeks celebrating the last 10 years of Internet Mania. Have you seen the latest cover of Wired Magazine? Its headline "TEN YEARS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD" indicates that the same messianic impulses that fueled so much craziness 10 years ago have not only not been chastened: in fact, they're stronger than ever!

Just for fun, I peeked over at Wired.com to take a look at their headlines for today. Here's what I found:

Nigerian Net Grifters Doing Fine
* "Congratulations, you are our lucky winner!" Tens of thousands of e-mails originating in Nigerian internet cafes announce riches to recipients, and some fork over lots of cash, never to hear from the senders again.

The Reality Behind Reality TV
Thumbnail photo* Sex Drive » A Hooking Up star explains why the reality TV show about online dating barely includes anything about the internet. Commentary by Regina Lynn.

Space Shuttle Heads for Home
* The Discovery crew says farewell to the astronaut and cosmonaut who live at the international space station, close the hatches and undock the shuttle. They are scheduled to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Monday.

Rivers of Coke
* Drug researchers piss-test an Italian river and find huge quantities of cocaine residue. Seems Italians are sniffing four times as much coke as officials estimate. By Stephen Leahy.

OK - so this is what our radically changed world looks like: rampant crime and chicanery. Stupid TV shows. Botched space missions. Coke-heads running amok. Hey - it sounds a lot like the 1980's, doesn't it?

The more things change, the more they stay the same: the whole mess is just speeded up, which means that things stay the same a lot more quickly! How's that for a revolution?