“The much-heralded information superhighway . . . [is] a development in technology so remarkable in scope that it could equal the telephone or the steam engine in its ability to . . . improve our quality of life.” —Rick Boucher, U.S. representative from Virginia

Humans have always looked toward the future. People involved in the science and technology industries continually make predictions, and quite often their forecasts are no more accurate than what past civilizations gleaned by looking at tea leaves. Despite the visions depicted in exhibits at World’s Fairs, no one is living in outer space à la the Jetsons. On the other hand, IBM founder Thomas J. Watson turned out to be laughably wrong for proclaiming in 1941, “I think there is a world market for about five computers.” With today’s computer market millions of times larger than Watson ever envisioned, visionaries have...