Predictions I made coming true.

Back in the middle of the last decade of the 20th century, when the internet was first becoming important, I postulated to a friend that books in print would soon become a thing of the past. I suggested soon they would be downloadable, that we would soon be reading books on our computers, saving the cost of printing and shipping. The friend I was having this conversation with responded that it would take too long to download a book, it would take up a lot of space on a hard drive, and who would want to sit in front of their computer and read.

At the time I had to concede that he was right. Certainly neither of us envisioned at the time developments like the Kindle and high speed internet service (back then I believe I had a 1200 baud modem on my computer). Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon.com is now selling more ebooks than hardcover books. Certainly, my prediction has far from come true, some 15 years later, but we are a lot closer to it than I would ever have imagined we would be after my theory was so completely shot to pieces back in the mid-90's. Meanwhile, Audible.com has made a business by selling audio books for download to listen to on your mp3 player. No doubt, the "book" as we grew up with it is definitely under threat, and not just from the fact that too many people are now too stupid to bother reading one.

Okay, so that prediction of mine didn't completely come true, but I got some of it right. Another prediction that I made about that the existence of the sports bar would cause men to evolve several new, independent sets of eyes, so that they can watch all the football games at once while still being able to locate their cheeseburger and beer. It was believed that humans had actually stopped evolving long ago (at least long ago by human standards). But the New York Times today reports that scientists have found evidence of evolution in our species over the past several thousand years. No doubt, by the year 2525, if man is still alive, he will be able to watch the entire NFL schedule at once, maybe even while paying attention to the sermon on his megachurch TV station (One would hope we would evolve enough intelligence to not be that gullible in 2525, but the future in the film "Idiocracy" looks more likely.

Make sure you keep reading this space to catch all my brilliant visions into the future!