Hype List
1. Videogames Nostalgia
Nostalgia just doesn't sit well with digital technology. The rhetoric of revolution and perpetual change leaves little room for embracing the past. The return-to-the-'80s craze is easier to take with artifacts like the Go-Gos and skinny ties than reviving games like Pac-Man and refurbishing old arcade consoles. Music and fashion have been around longer than digital technology - they're almost expected to have a more lasting currency. It must seem odd for 3DO's Trip Hawkins to see his cutting-edge games vying for shelf space with Space Invaders.
2. Unlimited Bandwith
Technology cheerleader George Gilder and ATM proponents want to convince us that we are entering a bold new era of unlimited bandwidth. This hype is being fueled by "spec creep": network developers who claim 150 Mbyte per second data-transfer rates when usually their nets can hit only 60 Mbyte per second on a good day. Even more important, hypemeisters conveniently ignore latency - the time it takes to get from A to B - which is just as important as bandwidth and harder to improve upon.
Current Position Months Position Last Month on List ——————————————————- Videogame Nostalgia 1 1 2 Unlimited Bandwith 2 - 1 Post Internet 3 - 1 PCS 4 - 1 Telephone Debit Cards 5 - 1 3. Post-Internet
Now that the Internet and its virtues have been trumpeted in every newspaper and magazine, and every online service is touting various forms of Internet access in addition to its own generally lame content, technology pundits are struggling for new material. So, after a back-lash decrying the Net's difficult navigation and impending collapse into commercialism, now comes ... post-Internet. Blasé is in! The Internet will soon be supplanted by something Much Bigger, say the experts. It's not clear what this is, but you can bet that as soon as the pundits come up with something, we'll all need to jump on board immediately or risk being lost forever.
4. PCS
When all the regulatory bickering dies down, companies that bid millions to supply Personal Communications Service will face some cold realities. For one thing, the multibillion-dollar infrastructure required for PCS still has to be built. For another, there are many competing PCS standards, each backed by a powerful group of proponents. Without a standard in place soon, the PCS's development into the ubiquitous wireless communications service of the future may well be permanently retarded.
5. Telephone Debit Cards
Don't get me wrong, I think telephone debit cards are great. More convenient than coins, less expensive than credit cards; it's about time they came to the US. It's the hype about collecting them, the frenzy over limited-edition McDonalds and Czechoslovakian Playboy cards, that bugs me. Call me cynical, but it seems pretty clear who's benefiting from people hoarding these prepaid cards. As long as you collect the damn cards instead of using them you're just making the telcos rich because you're effectively paying for calls you never make. Let's just use the cards as we're supposed to and stick to collecting baseball cards.
Steve G. Steinberg (hypelist@wired.com)
