I just found a relatively short, accurate history of the Internet at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41814/41814-0.txt. I found in it that I had written in 1998 “The web will be an encyclopedia of the world by the world for the world. There will be no information or knowledge that anyone needs that will not be available. The major hindrance to international and interpersonal understanding, personal and institutional enhancement, will be removed. It would take a wilder imagination than mine to predict the effect of this development on the nature of humankind.”
I recall giving talks about the future of the Web at several universities which contained this quote or something similar.
